The endoscopic management of early squamous carcinoma of the vocal cord with the carbon dioxide surgical laser: clinical experience and a proposed subclassification.

Sixteen patients with T1 vocal cord squamous cell carcinoma were treated with endoscopic laser excision during a 4-year period. Laser excision was the initial treatment in 11 patients, and it was used to treat 5 patients who had recurrence after radiotherapy. Postoperatively, 13 (81%) of the 16 patients had normal voices. Two patients with persistent postoperative hoarseness had had anterior commissure lesions and previous radiotherapy; the other patient had a subtotal cordectomy. One patient developed a subsequent new lesion 27 months after the initial laser treatment; he was successfully managed with a second endoscopic laser excision. Involvement of the anterior commissure or involvement of the vocal process with minimally invasive disease proved not to be a contraindication to laser excision. The overall results in this small series suggest that laser excision of T1 vocal cord carcinoma is an excellent method of treatment.