Various surgical procedures such as mucous flaps, skin flaps and muscle flaps have been designed for glottic reconstruction following vertical partial laryngectomy. In order to obtain a good phonatory function, adequate glottic closure during phonatoon is necessary. A thyroid gland flap was devised and applied clinically to a case. This new surgical technique is described in this paper.
The upper pole of the thyroid gland was dissected and elevated together with the superior thyroid artery and vein so as to make a thyroid flap. After removal of the cancerous lesion by vertical partial laryngectomy, the flap was placed in the wound to compensate for the loss of bulk and relined by an island cervical skin flap. Good phonatory function was obtained without any disturbance of respiration and deglutition.
The thyroid gland flap can be adjusted to the size of the defect, easily placed in the larynx, and is less likely to shrink than other flaps because of its abundant blood suply. Therefore, the flap was assumed to be suitable to reconstruct the glottis after vertical partial laryngectomy.