Near-total laryngectomy (Pearson's method): Radical surgical procedure with preservation of phonatory function

Patients with advanced T3 and T4 laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinoma need surgical treatment--total laryngectomy. Excision of the larynx affects enormously the quality of patient's life. Near total laryngectomy appeared about twenty years ago, and was accepted worldwide during the last decade of the twentieth century. Two years ago we started performing this operative procedure. Although we still don't have great experiance, first results are satisfying. We point to the importance of this procedure especially in developing countries, where phonatory protheses are expensive, patients' education of esophageal speech is not satisfactory and number of those who were successfully trained is small. The aim of this paper was to introduce near total laryngectomy as a surgical procedure which improves quality of life of patients with advanced stages of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinoma.