Primary reconstruction of airway after resection of subglottic laryngeal and upper tracheal stenosis.

Eighteen patients with low subglottic laryngeal stenosis and upper tracheal stenosis underwent resection of the anterior and lateral cricoid cartilage and upper trachea with reconstruction by primary laryngotracheal anastomosis. The posterior cricoid plate and recurrent laryngeal nerves were preserved. The distal trachea was tailored obliquely with an anterior prow and was anastomosed to the thyroid cartilage anteriorly and to the residual cricoid posteriorly. Where the stenosis was circumferential, scarred mucosa was resected from the anterior surface of the posterior cricoid lamina and the defect covered with a tailored flap of membranous tracheal wall. In 14 patients the lesions followed intubation injury. In 2 the stenosis was idiopathic. One stenosis resulted from inhalation burn and one from localized amyloidosis. Many patients had undergone previous surgical repairs. Sixteen patients had good to excellent results from six months to five and one-half years later. Reconstruction of the burned airway failed. One additional patient is still under treatment with a T tube.