This research carried out a systematic review aimed at identifying the main treatments of pharyngocutaneous fistula after total laryngectomy and at elaborating recommendations for nursing interventions in care delivered to patients submitted to total laryngectomy, including the pharyngocutaneous fistula complication. In advance, 1007 studies were found, out of which we selected 37 studies published in scientific journals indexed in Pubmed, Biomednet, Cinahl, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE and LILACS. Among these, 17 (46%) dealt with the treatment of pharyngocutaneous fistula after total laryngectomy, 10 (27%) discussed the risk factors and the other 10 (27%) were about complications after total laryngectomy. The analysis of these articles revealed that the predominant research orientation was retrospective (88.5%) and 11.5% corresponded to prospective studies. Average follow-up time was 8.8 years and the occurrence of pharyngocutaneous fistula after total laryngectomy varied from 8.7% to 27.0%, involving 635 patients in total. Analyzed risk factors were: pre-operative radiotherapy, surgical technique, preoperative tracheostomy, tumor stage, fever, chronic disease, vomiting, hemoglobin level and restarting oral feeding. These constitute subgroups with a lower number of patients which, consequently, obtained higher individual percentage values for the occurrence of pharyngocutaneous fistula in comparison with the general fistula rate from the initial study sample. The conservative and surgical treatment of fistula aims to preserve and restore the injured region and involves a complex, dynamic and systemic process. This complication increased the internment and healing periods, with an average duration of 28 and 36 days respectively. The conservative treatment still predominates and implies intensive hygienic care and wound treatment. The planning of nursing care, based on technical-scientific knowledge and abilities related to wound treatment, in association with the psychosocial dimension, will result in higher-quality interventions. Incorporating evidence-based knowledge into clinical practice will offer greater consistency to nursing actions in caring for patients after total laryngectomy who suffer from pharyngocutaneous fistula.