The most common cause of long-term failure was the recurrence of the disease. The success of this operative procedure depends on wide surgical excision of cancer along with rapid reconstruction of alimentary canal. The hypopharynx forms a single oncological unit. Carcinoma of this unit is uncommon, and when it occurs the primary lesion is usually extensive and often accompanied by metastatic deposits in the regional lymph nodes. The management of carcinomas arising from this unit has been a difficult problem facing head and neck surgeons for a number of reasons, including advanced disease at the time of presentation, high recurrence rate, difficulty in surgical reconstruction and poor results of radiation and surgical treatment.
Radiation alone produces few instances of either palliation or cure.
The high recurrence rate is attributed largely to the difficulty in determining the true extent of the tumor. This necessitates wide resection, including laryngopharyngo-esophagectomy, in order to minimize recurrence. Accepted for publication 15 November 1997. Received 23 July 1997. 2,3,8,11 Gastric pull-up operation was first employed by Ong and Lee 12 in 1960.