The Role of an Enhanced High-Technology Imaging System in the Evaluation of Head and Neck Malignancies
Project no. 32051 · Status: Kapanmış (Yayın bekleniyor) · 2024
Summary
<p>Otorhinolaryngology holds significant importance as it is a medical specialty that has achieved rapid advances in diagnostic, therapeutic, and follow-up methods over the years, with steadily increasing innovation and expanding multidisciplinary collaboration with numerous other fields. Particularly, the relatively rapid and straightforward examination of the organs and systems involved, as well as the ability to share examinations or treatment processes performed with devices such as endoscopes, microscopes, or exoscopes with observers other than the primary operator, provides major advantages in terms of documentation and education due to the ease of visualizing procedures. The number of head and neck cancers, which fall within the scope of otorhinolaryngology, continues to rise, and this patient group constitutes an increasingly larger population each year. Some of these cancers—such as laryngeal carcinomas, nasopharyngeal carcinomas, sinonasal malignancies, oropharyngeal carcinomas, and other head and neck malignancies—are diagnosed in outpatient settings with the help of endoscopes. Biopsy, treatment, and follow-up of these regions are performed either in the outpatient clinic or in the operating room using endoscopic systems. Since approximately 95% of head and neck malignancies originate from mucosal surfaces, direct visualization plays a crucial role in their diagnosis, and endoscopic systems hold a central position during this direct examination. As a tertiary care center, the range of procedures includes not only routine cases but also advanced, difficult-to-detect, and previously undiagnosed cases. During the diagnostic workup of these malignancies, determining how to evaluate unclear lesions and selecting appropriate intervention sites are of great importance. At this stage, the digital quality and features of imaging systems become critical, particularly for detecting small lesions, shortening operative duration, reducing complications, improving diagnostic and therapeutic accuracy in equivocal cases, and providing clearer recorded images for education and knowledge sharing. It is anticipated that this new advanced high-technology imaging system may aid in detecting malignant or premalignant pathologies that could otherwise be overlooked, and may help prevent potential complications or surgical failures (such as false-negative results, insufficient biopsies or investigations, incomplete assessment of disease extent, or microscopic positive margins). For this reason, the present study aims to analyze whether the advanced high-technology imaging system confers a higher diagnostic success rate in identifying head and neck malignancies compared with conventional imaging systems, and to examine the potential differences it may create. Patients previously treated with classical endoscopic procedures will be re-evaluated using endoscopes equipped with the advanced high-technology imaging system, and the findings will be analyzed. No procedures other than those routinely performed will be applied to the patients; all interventions will be conducted with conventional systems, and the advanced system will only be used to confirm findings.</p>