Importance: Adult laryngeal hemangiomas are rare and may cause symptoms such as dysphonia, dysphagia, and dyspnea. Carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers offer an alternative approach to managing this rare condition.
Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of CO2 lasers in treating adult hemangioma and to identify potential side effects associated with this treatment modality.
Design/methods: The study utilizes the PRISMA model to systematically collect articles available in the current literature. The numbers obtained from each academic manuscript were then used to calculate the effectiveness of CO2 laser therapy in patients with laryngeal hemangiomas. Articles from 1949 to 2023 were gathered using the PRISMA systematic review method.
Setting: Not applicable.
Participants: Adult patients with laryngeal hemangioma who were treated with CO2 lasers.
Intervention or exposures: Surgical management with CO2 lasers.
Main outcome measures: Number of patients with at least a 50% reduction in laryngeal hemangioma size.
Results: Two case reports, 4 case series, and 2 observational studies were included in this systematic review. For the case reports and series, only 1 out of the 19 patients experienced recurrence following CO2 laser treatment. However, some studies did not have adequate follow-up time. In the 2 observational studies, efficacy rates of 100% and 90.9% were reported by the authors respectively.
Conclusion and relevance: Adult laryngeal hemangioma can be safely and successfully treated with CO2 laser microsurgery in well-selected cases. More studies, as well as longer patient follow-ups, are needed to truly assess the efficacy of CO2 laser in treating laryngeal hemangioma. This method provides a minimally invasive technique for adult patients with this rare disease.
Keywords: adult laryngeal hemangioma; carbon dioxide laser; hemangioma; microsurgery.