Background The question of an optimal strategy and outcomes in COVID-19 tracheostomy has not been answered yet. The critical focus in our case study is to evaluate the outcomes of tracheostomy on intubated COVID-19 patients. Methods A multicentric prospective observational study of 1890 COVID-19 patients undergoing tracheostomy across 120 hospitals was conducted over 7 weeks in Spain (March 28 to May 15, 2020). Data were collected with an innovative approach: instant messaging via WhatsApp. Outcome measurements: complications, achieved weaning and decannulation and survival. Results We performed 1,461 surgical (81.3%) and 429 percutaneous tracheostomies. Median timing of tracheostomy was 12 days (4-42 days) since orotracheal intubation. A close follow-up of 1616/1890 (85.5%) patients at the cutoff time of 1-month follow-up showed that in 842 (52.1%) patients, weaning was achieved, while 391 (24.2%) were still under mechanical ventilation and 383 (23.7%) patients had died from COVID-19. Decannulation among those in whom weaning was successful (n = 842) was achieved in 683 (81%) patients. Conclusion To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest cohort of COVID-19 patients undergoing tracheostomy. The critical focus is the unprecedented amount of tracheostomies: 1890 in 7 weeks. Weaning could be achieved in over half of the patients with follow-up. Almost one out of four tracheotomized patients died from COVID-19.

Objectives Although the reliability of frozen sections for the intraoperative assessment of complete tumour excision has been established, the best location for collection and the impact of the type of sampling are still debated. We retrospectively investigated the reliability of frozen sections when collected from the surgical bed as tissue strips representative of the whole superficial margin and as a bowl of tissue underlying the resection site for deep margin, and the possibility of relying on frozen section negativity to consider resections complete. Materials and Methods Frozen section reliability was calculated by comparing histology before and after formalin embedding and then categorised by sampling type, in 182 patients undergoing transoral resection of oral cancer. Results Comparing frozen and permanent histology, sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were 69%, 98% and 96%, respectively; categorisation by sampling type failed to produce statistically significant differences. Based on frozen section negativity after formalin embedding, complete resections were obtained in 91.7% of patients with multiple‐strip and bowl frozen sections. Conclusion Frozen sections collected as tissue strips and bowl are as reliable as point sampling in the intraoperative guidance of surgical resections. They effectively provide for margin enlargement, thereby increasing the surgeon's confidence that negative margins are clear.

The objective of this study is to describe and evaluate the feasibility of TransOral UltraSonic Surgery (TOUSS), a new endoscopic alternative to transoral robotic surgery for approaching pharyngeal and laryngeal tumours based on ultrasonic scalpel as a resection tool. This is a prospective study on 11 consecutive patients with pharyngeal and supraglottic carcinomas between December 2013 and August 2014. All tumours were resected transorally with 35 cm ThunderbeatTM. Exposure was achieved using GyrusTM FK-retractor and Olympus ENDOEYE Flex 5 mm 2D/10 mm 3D deflecting tip video laparoscopes. We evaluated tumour staging, surgical margins, surgical time, blood transfusions, tracheostomy, enteral feeding, postoperative pain and hospital stay. The operating room setup and procedure are described. This series comprised seven early and four locally advanced carcinomas. The mean setup for TOUSS and resection time were 16 and 70.9 minutes. No major intraoperative complications were identified. The average time of nasogastric feeding tube dependence (n = 9) was 13 days. Gastrostomy was performed in one patient. The average hospital stay was 14.3 days. Postoperative pain was satisfactory treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. We have described TOUSS as a new feasible and intuitive procedure to approach endoscopically pharyngeal and supraglottic tumours, with good intraoperative conditions and functional outcomes.

The minimally invasive total laryngectomy avoids a wide surgical field and so it has the potential benefit of reducing the local morbidity, especially on radiated patients. This approach has been previously described on a robotic basis, the transoral robotic total laryngectomy (TORS-TL). We have designed a minimally invasive approach for total laryngectomy (TL) using the transoral ultrasonic surgery technique (TOUSS). TOUSS is a transoral, endoscopic, non-robotic approach for laryngeal and pharyngeal tumors, based on the ultrasonic scalpel as a resection tool. Two patients with a laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma with indication for total laryngectomy were surgically treated: one primary TL for a subglottic carcinoma and one salvage TL with partial pharyngectomy for a local relapse after chemoradiotherapy of a glottic carcinoma. The tumors were completely removed with free surgical margin in both patients. The functional recovery was satisfactory in terms of swallowing and speech (a tracheoesophageal puncture and voice prosthesis placement were done in the same procedure). No intraoperative complications were observed. The patient with previous chemoradiotherapy had a pharyngocutaneous fistula which closed spontaneously without additional surgery. We have demonstrated that transoral endoscopic approach to the larynx and pharynx is feasible without a robotic platform. TOUSS-TL can easily spread the transoral endoscopic philosophy as well as the benefits of a minimally invasive way to remove the entire larynx. Further research will show the advantages in terms of complications and functional outcomes.