Biophysical properties of the neck skin indicating potential complications of salvage surgery for laryngeal/hypopharyngeal cancer.

Background: Chemoradiation therapy is standard practice for hypopharyngeal and laryngeal cancer, but its impact on skin health can cause complications if salvage surgery is required.

Aims/objectives: To develop simple objective indices for the early detection of complications following head-and-neck salvage surgery.

Material And Methods: Preoperatively and on postoperative days 1, 3, 5 and 7, we measured skin hardness (N), interstitial liquid content (П) and intracellular liquid content (W) as biophysical properties in patients who underwent post-CRT salvage therapy and those who underwent total organ resection without CRT as controls. We then analyzed these data in relation to occurrence of complications.

Results: In 11 patients undergoing salvage surgery and 23 controls, complications tended to be higher ( = .54) in the salvage group. N values were significantly higher in the salvage and complication groups on days 5 and 7, П values were higher in the complication group on day 7, and W values were lower in the complication group on day 3 and in the salvage group preoperatively and on days 1 and 5.

Conclusions And Significance: N, П and W are useful measurements for the early identification of patients likely to develop complications.