Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2011 Aug;145(2):248-53.
doi: 10.1177/0194599811402172.

Outcomes of transoral robotic surgery: a preliminary clinical experience

Agnes Hurtuk  1 , Amit Agrawal, Matthew Old, Theodoros N Teknos, Enver Ozer
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Outcomes of transoral robotic surgery: a preliminary clinical experience

Agnes Hurtuk et al. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2011 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: To report a single institution's experience with transoral robotic surgery (TORS) and its clinical outcomes.

Study design: Preliminary clinical data from a prospective TORS study.

Setting: University tertiary care facility.

Subjects and methods: Patients who underwent TORS at The Ohio State University Medical Center. Demographic, intraoperative, clinicopathological, and follow-up functional data were collected.

Results: Sixty-four patients underwent TORS with a median age of 56.9 years. A total of 113 TORS procedures were performed. Fifty-four patients with squamous cell cancer (SCCA) were included in the final analysis. Mean follow-up time was 11.8 months (range, 2-29). There was a trend toward longer TORS setup time, operative time, estimated blood loss, and hospital length of stay with advanced (T(3)) compared with early-stage tumors (T(1-2)). There were no major intraoperative complications, and none of the procedures were aborted because of inability to remove the tumor. Negative resection margins were achieved in 93% of cases of SCCA. No patients experienced immediate postoperative complications, and all of the patients tolerated an oral diet without any airway compromise on the day of surgery. Forty-nine patients (91%) underwent adjuvant radiation therapy (RT), with 11 patients requiring gastrostomy tube placement during RT. Addition of TORS to overall management of head and neck SCCA spared adjuvant RT or combined chemotherapy and RT (CRT) in 50% of stage I/II tumors and spared chemotherapy in 34% of stage III/IV tumors.

Conclusion: TORS is a safe procedure with minimal complications and favorable clinical and functional outcomes. It is a promising future alternative surgical treatment for laryngopharyngeal tumors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Transoral robotic surgery study population.
Figure 2
Figure 2
HRQOL outcomes in head and neck cancer patients in the current study at 12 months, com with advanced head and neck cancer at 12 or more months after diagnosis in a study by Funk et al. C chemotherapy and radiation therapy; SRT=surgery and postoperative radiation therapy; HRQOL=heal life.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Holsinger FC, Sweeney AD, Jantharapattana K, et al. The emergence of endoscopic head and neck surgery. Curr Oncol Rep. 2010;12:216–22. - PubMed
    1. Moore EJ, Henstorm DK, Olsen KD, et al. Transoral resection of tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma. Laryngoscope. 2009;119:508–15. - PubMed
    1. Weinstein GS, O'Malley BW, Jr, Snyder W, et al. Transoral robotic surgery: radical tonsillectomy. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2007;133:1220–26. - PubMed
    1. Ozer E, Waltonen J. Transoral robotic nasopharyngectomy: a novel approach for nasopharyngeal lesions. Laryngoscope. 2008;118:1613–16. - PubMed
    1. Weinstein GS, O'Malley BW, Snyder W, et al. Transoral robotic surgery: supraglottic partial laryngectomy. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 2007;116:19–23. - PubMed

Publication types