Aug 19 2010
Surgeons at the Washington University School of Medicine and the Barnes-Jewish hospital’s Siteman Cancer Center are following a new approach to treat head and neck cancer. The technique, known as Transoral Laser Microsurgery (TLM), is a minimally invasive procedure that uses the existing openings in the patient’s face and avoids cutting the face and neck.
The current head and neck cancer treatment focuses on two issues. One issue is to remove the cancer affecting the skull base, voice box, throat or mouth, while the other is to perform reconstructive surgeries to restore the patients’ physical appearance as well as their ability to swallow and communicate. However, this procedure has side effects and results in scarring and functioning losses. With the Transoral Laser Microsurgery, surgeons use a laser and a microscope to locate the structures inside the throat through the mouth.
Siteman Cancer Center’s Director of head and neck cancer surgery, Bruce Haughey has been performing the TLM procedure over the last 10 years. He informed that the head’s pre-existing cavities are used to access the areas where the cancer is present. The endoscopes are then passed via the mouth or nostrils to locate the cancerous regions.