Treatment of recurrent respiratory papilloma in children

  Recurrent respiratory papilloma in children (hereinafter referred to as JRRP) is the most common benign laryngeal tumor in children and the second most common cause of hoarseness in childhood.JRRP lesions are aggressive and can recur repeatedly, and due to the specificity of its invasion site, it is easy to cause airway obstruction in children. There is no other more effective and thorough treatment method. The need for multiple surgeries not only poses a great threat to the child’s health, but also places a heavy financial and emotional burden on the child’s family.   JRRP is caused by a series of human papillomavirus (hereafter referred to as HPV) infections. The most common types of infection are type 6 and 11. The two types of HPV are also the most common causes of female genital warts. JRRP usually develops between 6 months and 5 years of age after birth and is characterized by frequent recurrences and progressive worsening. During the active phase of the disease, most children undergo surgery every 2 to 3 months, and a few patients require weekly excision of the lesion to prevent respiratory obstruction due to excessive growth of the tumor. Although there are cases of spontaneous remission, there is no certain pattern of remission periods.  JRRP occurs mostly in the upper respiratory tract, especially in the larynx, where HPV is prone to infect the junction between the larynx and trachea, where the squamous epithelium meets the normal ciliated columnar epithelium of the respiratory tract, and the lesions often invade the true and false vocal cords, the inter-epiglottis, and the subglottis. Since the vocal cords are usually the first and main site, almost all children have hoarseness or a weak cry. Laryngeal stridor is second only to hoarseness and is initially inspiratory and then gradually develops biphasic. Other clinical manifestations include chronic cough, recurrent pneumonia, developmental arrest, dyspnea, dysphagia, acute respiratory distress (especially in infants with upper respiratory tract infections), and sometimes misdiagnosis of asthma, pseudomembranous laryngitis, allergic reactions, vocal cord nodules, bronchitis, etc. The definitive diagnosis of JRRP ultimately requires pathologic section confirmation.  In the treatment of JRRP, since recurrence cannot be prevented, the goal of current treatment is to improve ventilation and vocalization and to reduce the size of the tumor in order to minimize damage to the child. The current treatment includes surgical resection, adjuvant drug therapy and other adjuvant treatments.  The methods of surgical resection are as follows: cold instrumentation, electric micro aspirator, CO2 laser, pulsed dye laser (hereinafter referred to as PDL).  1.Cold apparatus resection is to remove the lesion with suction, laryngeal forceps and scrapers under the direct view of the suspended laryngoscope microscope, this method has been gradually replaced by electric micro aspirator due to intraoperative bleeding and easy residual lesion.  2.Tumor tissues are cut and abraded layer by layer and sucked away at the same time during the operation of electric mini-suction cutter, which can keep the surgical field clear and not easily damage the normal tissues, so it is one of the most widely used instruments and one of our current common techniques.  3, CO2 laser has strong ability to penetrate tissues and can vaporize lesions in a short time, with less bleeding and minimal damage to the normal tissues adjacent to the lesions. It can maintain good vibration waves in the vocal cords despite repeated surgeries, and there is less chance of complicating vocal cord adhesions. There are more risks and more expensive equipment when CO2 laser is used clinically, and the application is gradually decreasing.  4.Pulsed dye laser is aimed at the histological characteristics of JRRP with a large number of vascular fiber nuclei, and the vascular nuclei in papilloma are used as the therapeutic target of laser, and by destroying the vascular supply in papilloma can lead to tumor degeneration while preserving the mucosa. This method can reduce the tumor volume better than traditional surgery, and has a good prognosis for the vocal folds due to the preservation of the vocal folds mucosa, which is now used more abroad, but no similar application has been reported in China. It may be one of the better methods in the future, and our hospital will introduce this device in the near future. But the price is more expensive.  5, low-temperature radiofrequency plasma resection technology can also be used in some patients, is also one of the better adjuvant devices.  The indications for adjuvant drug treatment of JRRP include: the need for more than 4 surgical treatments per year, rapid regeneration of the tumor and endangering the airway, and distant multiple metastases. Commonly used drugs include: ① antiviral drugs, cidofovir, 3-methanol indole, 3,3-diindolylmethane, interferon, etc. ②Mumps vaccine.  Other adjuvant therapies include: ① retinoid therapy; ② anti-gastroesophageal reflux therapy; ③ photodynamic therapy: double hematoporphyrin ether (DHE), 4.25 mg/kg, is applied before the application of angiolytic laser for papilloma with significant photosensitivity after 2-8 weeks of treatment; ④ vaccine therapy, for which no marketed product is available.  In conclusion, pediatric laryngeal papilloma is a more difficult disease that requires the attention of the whole society, further efforts of medical doctors, and the cooperation and support of parents.