OBJECTIVETo evaluate the clinical value of supraglottic horizontal partial laryngectomy.

METHODSOne hundred and sixty-three patients with supraglottic laryngeal carcinoma were treated surgically by supraglottic horizontal partial laryngectomy from 1978 to 1998. There were 64 males and 99 females. Five cases were staged I, 95 staged II, 48 staged III and 15 staged IV. The surgical techniques were improved: The hyoid was removed conventionally; The outer perichondrium of thyroid cartilage was turned into the laryngeal cavity and sutured with the mucosa of laryngeal ventricle and the base of tongue was sutured to the reserved thyroid cartilage. Survival was evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method. The differences between stages were tested by Los-Rank method.

RESULTSThe 5-year survival rate were 100.0%, 77.9%, 54.2% and 33.3% for patients staged I to IV respectively, and were statistically significant (P = 0.0006) between different clinical stages. The 5-year survival rate were 73.1% and 45.5% in patients with cN0 and cN + respectively, and were statistically significant (P = 0.0132). The speech and swallowing functions were good after operation. The decannulation rate was 91.4%. The main causes of death were cervical lymph node metastasis in 40% (20/50) and laryngeal recurrence in 18% (9/50). The occult metastasis rate was 23.1% (30/130) and cervical metastasis rates of patients with cN1-3 75.8% (25/33), with a total metastasis rate was 33.7 (55/163).

CONCLUSIONSSupraglottic horizontal partial laryngectomy is very effective in eradicating disease and in preserving laryngeal function on condition that the indications were selected correctly. The selective lateral neck dissection was recommended for supraglottic carcinoma.