![]() You can also try to sleep with your head up in a reclining chair. Sleep with your head up by using three or four pillows. Getting enough sleep will help you recover. You will need more time to get better if you must have more treatment for cancer, such as chemotherapy. ![]() Most people go back to work or to their normal routine 6 to 8 weeks after going home. A doctor or nurse will teach you how to care for the stoma. If all of your voice box was removed, you will have a hole in your neck to help you breathe. If you need help after surgery, you may want to consult with a counselor. It can affect your self-image and lead to depression. Losing your ability to talk can be very upsetting and hard to accept. If only a part of your voice box was removed, you may be able to talk after your throat has healed. If all of it was removed, you will need to learn new ways to communicate. ![]() Your ability to talk will depend on how much of your voice box was removed. Your doctor will give you detailed information on what and how you can eat using the feeding tube. Most of this goes away in 3 to 4 months.įor 2 to 3 weeks, you will either get food through a tube that goes into your nose and down your throat to your stomach, or through a tube that goes directly into your stomach. Also, you may have numbness in your neck and weakness in your face. You may have trouble swallowing for several days after you go home. You may have a drain tube in your neck for 1 to 4 days after your surgery. You will probably need to take pain medicine for a few weeks. This is common and may continue for a few weeks. It also helps you swallow and breathe.Īfter surgery, the area around the cut (incision) may be swollen or bruised. The voice box is in the neck and contains the vocal cords. As voice quality is dependent on the amount of tissue removed, this is expected to be poorer in patients with a larger volume of the disease.Laryngectomy is the removal of all or part of the voice box (larynx). ![]() Tumours extended outside the larynx are not suitable for laser resection. For patients who have a very anterior larynx, accessing and visualising the lesion may be extremely difficult. Not every patient with early laryngeal cancer is suitable to undergo trans-oral laser resection. The cure rate is similar to that attained by radiation and patients can return to work after two or three weeks. A tracheostomy, a surgical procedure to open a direct airway to the windpipe through an incision on the neck is not necessary in these patients. Swallowing can commence on the first day after operation. While the voice is poor initially, it recovers quickly and is largely intelligible. Patients normally do not have to stay in the hospital more than two days. This modality is especially useful for small lesions on the vocal cords. It is excised using a carbon dioxide laser. As the laryngeal tumour is accessed and visualised via a laryngoscope, there is no external incision. Trans-oral laser resection of laryngeal cancers can also be used to treat newly diagnosed patients. Recurrences in these patients are usually treated by surgery rather than a second course of radiation. With more recent techniques, such aas intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), these side effects are reduced. The side effects of radiation vary, but often patients are disturbed by the dryness of mouth as well as ulcers, causing pain when swallowing food and fluids. The voice quality remains good and swallowing is not significantly affected. The 5-year survival rates for early cancers (Stage I and II) are in the range of above 80 percent when radiation is used. Radiation has clearly been an effective treatment option for early cancers of the larynx. The goal is to cure and preserve organ function, namely that of speech and swallowing. Traditionally, treatment of these tumours is by radiation, with or without chemotherapy. Similarly, good results can be obtained for advanced tumours by surgery combined with radiation and/or chemotherapy. Good results can be obtained from both minimally invasive surgery to preserve voice or by radiation. However, some patients present with lymph node enlargement in the neck. In advanced cancer of the voice-box, treatment is by chemotherapy and radiation. Surgery can be performed by laser operation. It may be treated by radiation or surgery if early. Treatment depends on the site as well as the stage of disease.
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