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Byline: Gouri. Pantvaidya, Sheetal. Raina, Arindam. Mondal, Anuja. Deshmukh, Deepa. Nair, Prathamesh. Pai, Pankaj. Chaturvedi, Anil. D'Cruz BACKGROUND: Total laryngectomy (TL) is a well-established procedure for laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers. [...]

BACKGROUND: Total laryngectomy (TL) is a well-established procedure for laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers. There is an increasing number of TLs done after organ preservation strategies. AIM: The aim of this study was to report 30-day morbidity and survival outcomes in patients undergoing TL at a tertiary referral center. SETTING AND DESIGN: This was a retrospective review of a prospective database of TL patients operated during 2012–2013. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patient demographics and other data were captured from the database. Surgical complications were graded as per Clavien–Dindo grading system and were also divided into major and minor as per predecided criteria. Recurrence and survival data were computed using Kaplan–Meier survival curves. RESULTS: A total of 169 patients underwent TL during the study period. About 34% of the patients had received prior radiation therapy. Around 18% of the patients had major complications with a pharyngocutaneous fistula rate of 22.4%. Ninety percent of these were managed conservatively. Though used in a small subset, microvascular reconstruction had the least complication rates. The 3-year disease-free survival and overall survival were 66% and 72%, respectively. There was no difference in survival between per primum and salvage surgery cohorts. CONCLUSION: TL is a safe and oncologically sound procedure in patients with laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers. A large proportion of patients still undergo TL as a de novo procedure. This denotes that patients still present with locally advanced cancers which are not amenable to organ preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]