Abstract: Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy of endoscopic laryngeal surgery with plasma radiofrequency ablation vs. conventional open surgery to treat early glottic cancer. Methods Resection of laryngeal cancer was performed at our hospital between January 2013 and August 2016 in 55 patients with early glottic squamous cell cancer. Endoscopic laryngeal surgery with plasma radiofrequency ablation was performed in 35 patients(plasma group), and open surgery was performed in 20 patients(laryngofissure group). The situation of surgery, complications, recurrence rate, and postoperative change in voice were compared between the groups. Results The intraoperative blood loss(8.94±8.06 vs. 100.75±28.34 mL), operative time(15.60±7.20 vs. 94.00±9.95 min), length of hospitalization(6.86±0.77 vs. 11.45±1.05 days), postoperative pain scores(2.66±0.91 vs. 4.65±1.04), and the cough visual analogue scale scores(3.60±0.85 vs. 6.05±1.23)in the plasma group were better than those in the laryngofissure group(P<0.05). However, no intergroup difference was observed in the granulation hyperplasia and recurrence rates(P>0.05). Acoustic parameters, including fundamental frequency perturbation(jitter)(0.78±0.18 vs. 0.66±0.15%), amplitude perturbation(shimmer)(5.66±0.97 vs. 4.57±1.14%), and the harmonic noise ratio(17.41±2.58 vs. 15.39±1.63 dB)recorded a year postoperatively showed more significant improvement in the plasma than in the laryngofissure group. Notably, this intergroup difference was statistically significant(P<0.05). Conclusion Endoscopic laryngeal surgery with plasma radiofrequency ablation effectively treats early glottic cancer. This procedure scores over open surgery in terms of being a minimally invasive and highly effective approach associated with better voice preservation.

Key words: Early glottic cancer, Plasma radiofrequency ablation, Laryngofissure, Voice analysis