ABSTRACT
Conclusion:
In laryngeal leukoplasia, biopsy and histopathological examination are important for evaluating epithelial dysplasia and its degree. Histopathologically, factors such as presence and severity of dysplasia and smoking increase the risk of developing malignancy. Clinically homogeneous leukoplasia has a higher recurrence rate than nonhomogeneous irregularity. However, age distribution, sex, duration of initial symptom, reflux rate, smoking, and localization does not increase the recurrence rate, according to the results of this study.
Results:
Ten (10.30%) of the patients were females and 87 (89.70%) were males. The average age was 56.95 years. The initial sypmtom of all patients was hoarseness. Average cigarette use was 38.82 packets/year; smoking frequency was 93.8%; and reflux frequency was 16.6%. Indirect and direct laryngoscopic examinations revealed that 103 (59.53%) patients had leukoplasia and 70 (40.46%) patients had vocal cord irregularities. Mild dysplasia was the most common histopathological diagnosis. The lesion location was 45.1% in the anterior 1/3, 32.34% in the middle 1/3, and 22.55% in the posterior 1/3 of the vocal cord. The age distribution, sex ratio, duration of initial symptom, reflux rate, smoking rate, and localization were not statistically significant (p>0.05) in patients with and without recurrence. Leukoplasia recurrence rate was significantly higher (p<0.05) than irregularity rate.
Methods:
Overall, 174 lesions of 97 patients who were diagnosed with vocal fold dysplasia between 2007 and 2013 at our clinic were retrospectively analyzed. Histopathological classification of laryngeal leukoplakia, gender, age, systemic diseases, smoking habits, initial symptoms, duration of symptoms, location, size and number of lesions, and recurrence of the lesion were recorded.
Objective:
Leukoplasia requires careful clinical follow-up with recurrent biopsies, regardless of the histopathological grade of dysplasia, because it has a potential risk of malignant transformation. This study aimed to investigate the clinical features and risk factors of laryngeal leukoplasia.
