TLM as a primary treatment for advanced oropharyngeal malignancy confers excellent survival and swallowing proficiency.

Transoral resection of oropharyngeal carcinoma is safe, and severe life-threatening hemorrhage is rare. Although transcervical vessel ligation did not result in an overall decrease in bleeding rate, there is a trend toward reduced postoropharyngectomy bleeding severity with ligation. We recommend ligation for higher T-stage tumors, primary tonsil tumors, and patients undergoing revision surgery.

Multimodality therapy for angiosarcoma is associated with improved LRC, RFS, and OS. Younger patients with resectable disease undergoing multimodality therapy for angiosarcoma had the best clinical outcomes.

Similar to the Vietnam War experience, gram-negative rods, particularly Acinetobacter species, accounted for the majority of wound infections cared for on USNS Comfort during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Multidrug resistance was common, with the exception of the carbapenem class, limiting antibiotic therapy options.

Patients: A total of 117 patients with pathologically confirmed T2 to T4 lesions, stage III or stage IV, glottic or supraglottic carcinoma of the larynx were treated with TLM from 1997 to 2004. All patients had a minimum follow-up period of 2 years. Interventions: Transoral laser microsurgery in 117 patients, neck dissection in 91 patients, and adjuvant radiotherapy in 45 patients. Main Outcome Measures: End points analyzed included laryngeal preservation, overall survival, diseasefree survival, local control, locoregional control, and distant metastases. Postoperative complications, tracheotomy rate, and feeding-tube dependence were also examined. Results: The median follow-up period among surviving patients was 5 years. At 2 years, the percentage of patients with an intact larynx after treatment was 92%. The 2-year local control and locoregional control rates were 82% and 77%, respectively. The 2-year disease-free and overall survival rates were 68% and 75%, respectively. The 5-year Kaplan-Meier estimates were local control, 74%; locoregional, control, 68%; disease-free survival, 58%; overall survival, 55%; and distant metastases, 14%. Four patients (3%) experienced treatment-related deaths. Seven patients (6%) experienced a postoperative hemorrhage. Of those patients with organ preservation and no disease recurrence, 2 patients (3%) were tracheotomy dependent, and 4 patients (7%) were feedingtube dependent. Conclusions: In patients with advanced laryngeal cancer, TLM with or without radiotherapy is a valid treatment strategy for organ preservation. Furthermore, low morbidity and mortality and excellent oncologic and functional outcomes make TLM an attractive therapeutic option.

The microvascular transfer of free osteocutaneous flaps remains the standard of care, with the fibula flap the clear favorite. Review of the evolution of this flap for segmental mandibular reconstruction provides the bulk of the literature. Improvement on this standard of practice continues to be elusive, in large part because of the effects of associated radiation. Tissue engineering holds promise but no current practical application is available.

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Transoral laser microsurgery offers select patients an attractive alternative salvage surgical therapy to the recurrent and second primary tumor site.