The Laryngoscope is the highest impact factor journal in our specialty, so we are delighted to see that the front cover of the July edition of the journal featured an image of the seminal diagram from the original article in the year 2000. Prof Marc Remacle tells us more. This is a link to the journal.

Since the first transoral cordectomy performed by Stuart Strong in the early seventies and the seminal work of Wolfgang Steiner and other German laryngologists like Rudert, Thumfart, Eckel or Ambrosch during the 80’s and the 90’s, transoral Co2 laser microsurgery (TOLMS) is progressively become the gold standard for surgical treatment of early vocal fold cancer.                                                                                                  
However, on reading those first publications, one notices that the extent of resection, which depends on the size of the lesion, was not always defined. So inside the European Laryngological Association, a working group was created to propose a classification of the different type of cordectomies.

The aim of the proposal was not to define or restrict therapeutic indications, but, by means of this common classification, to allow interpretation and comparison of postoperative results achieved by different centers, depending on the extent of the tumor and various surgical indications. 

Furthermore, this system serves another purpose: to improve the teaching and training of inexperienced laryngologists. We believe that non-standardized surgery, which requires years of training to understand its limits, offers little reproducibility to the majority of laryngologists. All reproducible techniques have guidelines.
 
The ELS classification results from an agreement among the different authors. Concessions were necessary. We chose a simple categorization. A more sophisticated one might have been more rigorous but less practical for everyday practice. 

Progressively this classification, more 20 year-old, was adopted not only in Europe but all over the word and was cited more than 200 times in peer-reviewed publications and textbooks.


Endoscopic cordectomy. a proposal for a classification by the Working Committee, European Laryngological Society

Marc Remacle · Hans E. Eckel · Antonio Antonelli · Daniel Brasnu · Dominique Chevalier · Gerhard Friedrich · Jan Olofsson · Heinrich H. Rudert · Walter Thumfart · Marco de Vincentiis · Thomas P. U. Wustrow  

Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol (2000) 257 : 227–231 


Proposal for revision of the European Laryngological Society classification of endoscopic cordectomies 

Marc Remacle · Christophe Van Haverbeke · Hans Eckel · Patrick Bradley · Dominique Chevalier · Votko Djukic · Marco de Vicentiis · Gerhard Friedrich · Jan Olofsson · Giorgio Peretti · Miquel Quer · Jochen Werner 

Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol (2007) 264:499–504 

An unprecedented endeavor to improve the quality of voice care of transgender community started in June 2022 in Berlin, Germany, which is the birthplace of Wendler Glottoplasty, most known voice feminization procedure.

World renowned laryngologists and voice surgeons from all around the globe joined forces to establish the International Association of TransVoice Surgeons.
Prof. Markus Hess, elected president of the association commented: “We aim to improve the quality of voice care as well as surgical techniques for transgender women. Furthermore, professional training and research on voice feminization, masculinization, and fine-tuning is an important goal of the association”.

Founding members are phonosurgeons spanned from South Korea to Colombia and from Finland to India: Chadwan Al Yaghchi (UK), Antonio Ballestas (Colombia), Hakan Birkent (Turkiye), Juan-Carlos Casado (Spain), Ahmed Geneid (Finland), Markus Hess (Germany), Hyung-Tae Kim (South Korea), Dirk Mürbe (Germany), Nupur Kapoor Nerurkar (India), Marc Remacle (Luxemburg), James Thomas (USA), Kursat Yelken (Turkiye). The inauguration was attended by Professor emeritus Juergen Wendler (Germany), who invented the glottoplasty technique that is nowadays widely performed surgical method for voice feminization.

The Norwegian Laryngological Society held its first post-Covid meeting in Stavanger on 2-3 June 2022. Local host Lynn Biseroed and the program committee had created a balanced program ranging from basic neurolaryngology to surgical approaches of benign lesions as well as oncological techniques including laryngectomy. Guest speakers were Kate Heathcote from the UK and Elisabeth Sjogren from the Netherlands. And for some local flavor the dinner was a held at the Stavanger Oil Museum after an educational tour of the museum dedicated to this important Norwegian industry. All in all an inspiring example of a very active and ambitious national laryngological society!