Horizontal laryngectomy is a partial resection at the level of the supraglottic laryngeal vocal folds.
This surgical approach is adapted to supraglottic laryngeal voice-gate type cancer, especially when the epiglottis cancer has invaded the ventricular girdle, but the vocal cords, thyroid cartilage, and the root of the tongue have not been invaded.
Patients need to undergo conventional tracheotomy first, and under the insertion of anesthetic cannula and intravenous combined anesthesia, part of laryngeal tissues including ventricular band, arytenoid folds and epiglottis are removed at the level of supraglottis. Postoperatively, the ventilation tube at the tracheotomy site and a nasogastric diet were maintained. Most patients breathe and vocalize well after surgery.
The disadvantage of this procedure is that postoperative patients have varying degrees of dietary choking and are encouraged to eat sticky food, which mostly improves within 2 to 3 weeks. The tracheal tube was removed after the dietary choking cough basically disappeared. The degree of choking and recovery time are related to the patient’s age. Therefore, patients of advanced age and those with poor lung function should be more carefully selected when using this procedure.