Objective: There is an aprox. 1/4 incident rate between malign tumors of the tongue base and the malign tumors of the tongue’s mobile part.
Methods: The study was made in the ENT Clinic Timisoara, for a period of 10 years. It presents the therapy of 30 patients treated for neoplasm with tongue-base localization. Clinically positive cervical node at the initial visit was found in 26 (86.66%) of those patients at the moment of examination. Treatment for all patients was initial surgery followed by postoperative radiation. Surgical procedures performed (1) tongue base tumor removal trough transhyoid pharyngotomy approach (2) tongue base tumor removal + epi- glottectomy (3) tongue base tumor removal + horizontal supra- glottic laryngectomy.
Results: The post-operative evaluation factors were: resection borders healthiness, postoperative complications, level of post- operative disfagia. Long term evaluation after surgical treatment. At 25 of 30 patients the post-operative evolution was positive without signs of loco-regional or ganglionar recidivae. One patient died after one and a half-year from the operation. Death was caused by an abdominal tumor. Another patient died after eight month with local recurence. One patient presented a pharyngeal fistula which necessitated pharyngoplasty with latissimus dorsi. The nasophageal nutrition catheter was suppressed after three weeks for all the patients. None of the cases required postopera- tive gastrostoma.
Conclusions: The resections of the neoplasms using the trans- hyoidian approach is a useful procedure that permits postopera- tive deglutition and comparable rate of the tumor control for a long time, with lower postoperative morbidity.
