Objectives: To assess the clinical utility of elective neck dissection in node-negative recurrent laryngeal carcinoma after curative radiotherapy for initial early glottic cancer.Methods: A retrospective review was undertaken of 110 consecutive early glottic cancer patients who developed laryngeal recurrence after radiotherapy (34 recurrent T 1 , 36 recurrent T 2 , 29 recurrent T 3 and 11 recurrent T 4a ) and received salvage laryngeal surgery between 1995 and 2005.Results: Six patients presented with laryngeal and neck recurrence and underwent salvage laryngectomy with therapeutic neck dissection, 97 patients with recurrent node-negative tumours underwent salvage laryngeal surgery without neck dissection and only 7 underwent elective neck dissection. No occult positive lymph nodes were documented in neck dissection specimens. During follow up, only three patients with neck failure were recorded, all in the group without neck dissection. There was no significant association between the irradiation field (larynx plus neck vs larynx) and the development of regional failure. A higher rate of post-operative pharyngocutaneous fistula development occurred in the neck dissection group than in the group without neck dissection (57.2 per cent vs 13.4 per cent, p = 0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that early (recurrent tumour-positive, node-positive) or delayed (recurrent tumour-positive, node-negative) neck relapse was not significantly related to the stage of the initial tumour or the recurrent tumour. An age of less than 60 years was significantly associated with early neck failure (recurrent tumour-positive, node-positive).Conclusion: Owing to the low occult neck disease rate and high post-operative fistula rate, elective neck dissection is not recommended for recurrent node-negative laryngeal tumours after radiation therapy if the initial tumour was an early glottic cancer.

After failure of curative radiotherapy (RT), surgery is the main therapeutic option to control recurrent laryngeal cancer. Recurrences after RT for T1-T2 tumours of the glottic larynx are often diagnosed at a more severe stage than the original disease and, thus, usually treated by radical approaches. Our aim is to investigate the feasibility of more conservative strategies for proper treatment of post-RT recurred glottic cancer. We collected and reviewed our files from 1990 to 2006, selecting 75 patients which matched the following inclusion criteria: (1) patient was originally diagnosed with early stage squamous cell carcinoma of the glottic larynx (stage I-II according to 2010 TNM), (2) patient was treated by RT with curative intent, (3) patient presented a recurrence of disease after RT which was surgically treated at our Institution. T stage at first diagnosis was T1a in 41 cases (55 %), T1b in 12 (16 %) and T2 in 22 (29 %). At clinical examination of RT-recurred lesions, we documented advanced lesions (rT3-rT4) in 29 out of 75 patients (39 %). Overall, an upstage was reported for 56 % RT-recurred cancers, while 37.3 % remained at the same stage than the original tumour and 6.7 % were downstaged. Twelve patients (16 %) underwent salvage partial laryngectomy (SPL), while 63 (84 %) received a salvage total laryngectomy (STL). Multivariate analysis showed that rTNM according to the AJCC-UICC of 2010 was the only prognostic factor for both disease-free survival (p = 0.042) and overall survival (p = 0.004). Considering the prognostic impact of rT and rN we documented a statistical significance only in terms of overall survival for both factors (p = 0.004 and p = 0.04, respectively). Although STL remains the most frequent treatment choice for failures after RT in laryngeal carcinomas, SPL represents a valid option for selected patients with limited recurrence and can deliver good oncologic and functional results if performed according to careful indications.

Development of intracranial complications from middle ear infections might be difficult to diagnose. We compared radiological and surgical findings of 26 patients affected by otogenic meningitis. Results of our analysis showed that surgery is more reliable than imaging in revealing bone defects. Therefore, suggest that surgery be performed for diagnosis and eventual management of all cases of suspected otogenic meningitis.