Pediatric primary anterior laryngotracheoplasty: Thyroid ala vs costal cartilage grafts.

OBJECTIVE To compare outcomes with the use of thyroid ala cartilage (TAC) and costal cartilage (CC) grafts in pediatric primary anterior laryngotracheoplasty (LTP). DESIGN Retrospective comparison study. SETTING Tertiary, academic children's hospital. PATIENTS Of 45 laryngotracheal operations performed between June 2001 and October 2008 for laryngotracheal stenosis, 29 were primary anterior LTPs. The procedures used either TAC (n = 24) or CC (n = 5) grafts and were planned as either single-stage (TAC group, 22 patients; CC group, 2 patients) or multistage (TAC group, 2 patients; CC group, 3 patients). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Operative time, length of intubation, graft-specific complications, need for additional airway procedures, and overall decannulation rate. RESULTS The mean (SD) operative times were 222 (56) minutes for TAC grafts and 363 (59) minutes for CC grafts (P = .005). For single-stage LTPs that were decannulated, the mean (range) length of intubation was 3.3 (1-11) days for TAC grafts (n = 18) and 3 (1-5) days for CC grafts (n = 2) (P = .90). Graft-specific complications occurred in 17% of TAC grafts (n = 4) and 20% of CC grafts (n = 1) (alpha > 0.05). Symptomatic stenosis requiring additional surgical intervention occurred in 43% of TAC grafts (n = 10) and 60% of CC grafts (n = 3) (alpha > 0.05). Patients underwent decannulation in 83% of TAC grafts (n = 19) and 80% of CC grafts (n = 4) (alpha > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS In primary anterior LTPs, TAC grafts require significantly less operative time than CC grafts (P = .005). There were no statistically significant differences in length of intubation, frequency of graft-specific complications, or decannulation rates between TAC and CC grafts in primary anterior LTPs.