KATH performs first Laryngectomy and neck dissection.

Kumasi, March 16, GNA - The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital

(KATH) in Kumasi now has the expertise to perform total Laryngectomy - surgical


removal of the voice box - following the successful operation on a 63-year old


man. This follows the return of Dr Anna Konney to the hospital, after her


post fellowship training experience in Head and Neck Surgery and Oncology in


South Africa. Dr Konney led a team of Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeons to perform the


first combined surgery of total laryngectomy and neck dissection at the hospital. The seven hour operation was performed on the 63-year-old man with

laryngeal cancer (Cancer of the voice box), which had spread to the right side of


the neck. The patient is doing very well after the surgery and has since started adjuvant


radiotherapy. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency, at Kumasi, after the surgery, Dr


Konney said data at the Head and Neck Oncology clinic at the hospital indicates


that laryngeal cancer was the third commonest cancer in the total population of


patients. Fifteen out of the 160 (9.4%) of patients who visited the clinic between

2004 and 2006 were found to be suffering from the disease, majority of them


males. She said the disease which is supposed to be common among adults


between the ages of 60-62 was, however, being detected increasingly in patients


around 50.3 years. Dr Konney said laryngeal cancer was 6-39 times more likely in smokers


than non-smokers. Alcohol abuse was also a risk factor and the combined risk of


smoking and alcohol was even far greater. She said patients usually present late with hoarseness, difficulty in

breathing, swallowing and a swollen neck. Dr Konney explained that late presentation had made it difficult if not impossible for patients to benefit from existing management modalities, adding


that, palliative care procedures such as tracheostomy (creating an artificial opening


into the trachea), placing a tube in the stomach for feeding, radiotherapy and pain


management had been usually offered to help patients. She revealed that patients often refuse total laryngectomy treatment


mainly because of the loss of the voice following the surgery and so, few cases of


total laryngectomy had been done in the past. Dr Konney explained that surgical management when combined with

other modalities of treatment such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy improved


survival rate and quality of life adding that, experts were now available at KATH to


offer hope for patients.