Supracricoid laryngectomy （SCL） is a useful surgical procedure that enables both disease cure and function preservation in patients with laryngeal cancer, however, the duration of treatment tends to be prolonged. We report an attempt to start swallowing rehabilitation at an early post-operative time where feasible to shorten the duration of treatment.
All 31 patients who underwent SCL for laryngeal cancer in our hospital from March 2013 to August 2020 were included. The cases were divided into those in which swallowing rehabilita-tion was performed before the tracheostomy closure （early rehab group, n＝7） and those in which it was performed afterward （late rehab group, n＝24）. The timing of postoperative intervention and the total duration of treatment were compared between these two groups.
In the early rehab group and the late rehab group, the median start dates of swallowing rehabil-itation were 20 days （range, 15-24 days） and 71.5 days （33-227 days） after surgery, re-spectively （p＜0.001）. The median duration of swallowing rehabilitation was 28 days （16-88 days） and 22 days （12-77 days）, respectively （p＝0.15）. The median total duration of treatment was 54 days （45-109 days） and 108.5 days （63-441 days）, respectively （p＜0.001）.
Initiation of swallowing rehabilitation before tracheostomy closure significantly shortened the total duration of treatment without extension of the duration of swallowing rehabilitation. This procedure may be a practical and useful intervention in the postoperative management of SCL.