Endoscopy; Radiotherapy; endoscopy; Glottic cancer; Intrapapillary capillary loops; Larynx; Narrow band imaging (NBI); tumors

Purpose Narrow-band imaging is the state of the art in the diagnosis of mucosal lesions of the vocal cords. It is also used in the follow-up of patients after surgical therapy. Unfortunately, if a patient has received radiotherapy the follow-up is much more difficult. Radiation induces inflammatory changes in the mucosa, which lead to changes in the vascular architecture and thus affect the results of the examination. The dynamics and time dependence of vascular changes after radiotherapy have not yet been described. The purpose of this study is to describe the evolution of the vascular pattern in vocal cords after primary radiotherapy for glottic cancer. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study. Each patient underwent NBI videolaryngoscopy and was followed every 3 months. Results The tumor-related mucosal changes diminished at 3 months after radiotherapy. Afterward, growth of new longitudinal vasculature was observed and significantly slowed after 9 months. No perpendicular vasculature or tumor recurrence was observed during the course of the study. Conclusions According to our data, we can conclude that post-radiation mucosal vasculature changes are only longitudinal.