Open conservation partial laryngectomy for laryngeal cancer: a systematic review of English language literature.

BACKGROUND Different modalities of treatment in early laryngeal cancer lead to equivalent oncological outcomes. Hence this systematic review was undertaken to synthesise the key oncological outcomes following primary open partial laryngectomy for laryngeal cancer. METHODS A systematic review of the English literature with statistical pooling of outcomes, the main outcome measure being local control at 24 months. RESULTS A total of 53 articles satisfied inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The pooled local control rate at 24 months from 5061 patients was 89.8% (95% CI 88.3-91.2), pooled overall survival was 79.7% (n = 3967; 95% CI 76.5-782.8) and pooled mean disease free survival was 84.8% (n = 2344; 95% CI 80.6-88.7). The pooled mean operative mortality, laryngectomy for function, tracheostomy decannulation and permanent gastrostomy rates were 0.7%, 1.7%, 96.3%, and 2.0%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Open conservation laryngectomy is a good option in selected primary laryngeal cancers with excellent oncological outcomes.