Retrospective comparison of conservative and radical neck dissection in laryngeal cancer.

A retrospective comparison of radical and conservative technique for neck dissection in cancer of the larynx was made, starting from analysis of 98 patients operated on with the conservative procedure (128 cervical neck fields at risk of recurrence) at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan. Furthermore, a series of 162 patients was selected from more than 500 radical neck dissections performed in the past to set up a series as comparable as possible as far as several parameters were concerned. No significant difference was found between radical and conservative neck dissection with regard to the incidence of recurrences in the operative field, either considering the whole series (2.5% versus 1.6%), or cases with histologically proven metastases (9.4% versus 4.5%). Conservative neck dissection seems as safe as radical neck dissection, at least within the limits set in the present study for the indication of the former procedure, ie, nonsuspect nodes or metastatic mobile nodes not greater than 2.5 cm.