Patients and methods
This is a retrospective study. Twenty-six ALH patients who underwent 29 different procedures between them­—conventional chemotherapy or ALH excision—at our department between June 2012 and March 2021 were enrolled in the study. The patients were divided into two groups, the ALH excision group (9 cases) and the conventional chemotherapy group (20 cases). The 20 cases in the conventional chemotherapy group received bleomycin injections. In the ALH excision group, three cases underwent “cold as a surgical instrument” therapy (which included the use of micro laryngeal forceps and micro laryngeal microscissors); two cases underwent holmium laser therapy; and four cases underwent CO2 laser therapy.
ALH diagnoses were made based on patient history, laryngoscopic findings, and contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) (Figure 1). All the surgeries were preformed under general anesthesia using a suspension micro laryngoscope. In the ALH excision group, hemangioma classification was done based on histopathological examination. However, in the conventional chemotherapy group, hemangioma classification was done based on morphology, according to the classification of tracheal hemangiomas3,4.