TABLE 2.
Pre-TORS swallow function: PAS evaluation and DIGEST score by tumor site and age
| Preoperative PAS | Preoperative DIGEST summary | Preoperative DIGEST efficiency | Preoperative DIGEST safety | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Covariate | Statistics | Level | WFL (1–2) N = 120 |
Pen/Asp (3–8) N = 5 |
p-valuea | 0–1 N = 100 |
2–4 N = 25 |
p-valuea | 0–1 N = 101 |
2–4 N = 24 |
p-valuea | 0–1 N = 122 |
2–4 N = 3 |
p-valuea |
| Clinical | N (Row %) | Unknown primary | 26 (89.66) | 3(10.34) | 0.151 | 23 (79.31) | 6 (20.69) | 0.107 | 23 (79.31) | 6 (20.69) | 0.059 | 28 (96.55) | 1 (3.45) | 1.000 |
| presentation of primary | N (Row %) | Tonsil | 55 (98.21) | 1 (1.79) | 49 (87.5) | 7 (12.5) | 50 (89.29) | 6 (10.71) | 55 (98.21) | 1(1.79) | ||||
| N (Row %) | BOT | 39 (97.5) | 1 (2.5) | 28 (70) | 12 (30) | 28 (70) | 12 (30) | 39 (97.5) | 1 (2.5) | |||||
| Clinical | N (Row %) | Tonsil | 55 (98.21) | 1 (1.79) | 1.000 | 49 (87.5) | 7 (12.5) | 0.034 | 50 (89.29) | 6 (10.71) | 0.017 | 55 (98.21) | 1 (1.79) | 1.000 |
| presentation of primary (excluding unknown primary) | N (Row %) | BOT | 39 (97.5) | 1 (2.5) | 28 (70) | 12 (30) | 28 (70) | 12 (30) | 39 (97.5) | 1 (2.5) | ||||
| Pathologic tumor location | N (Row %) | Unknown primary | 4(80) | 1(20) | 0.122 | 3(60) | 2(40) | 0.107 | 3 (60) | 2(40) | 0.047 | 5(100) | 0(0) | 0.660 |
| N (Row %) | Tonsil | 60 (98.36) | 1 (1.64) | 53 (86.89) | 8(13.11) | 54 (88.52) | 7(11.48) | 60 (98.36) | 1(1.64) | |||||
| N (Row %) | BOT | 56 (94.92) | 3 (5.08) | 44 (74.58) | 15 (25.42) | 44 (74.58) | 15 (25.42) | 57 (96.61) | 2(3.39) | |||||
| Age at surgery | N | 120 | 5 | 0.076 | 100 | 25 | 0.057 | 101 | 24 | 0.028 | 122 | 3 | 0.340 | |
| Mean | 58.14 | 65.4 | 57.67 | 61.48 | 57.57 | 62.04 | 58.31 | 63.33 | ||||||
| Median | 57.5 | 70 | 57 | 60 | 57 | 61 | 58 | 70 | ||||||
Note: The significant p-values are marked in bold. Abbreviations: BOT, base of tongue; DIGEST, Dynamic Imaging Grade of Swallowing Toxicity; PAS, Penetration-Aspiration Scale; TORS, transoral robotic surgery.
a
The p-value is calculated by analysis of variance (ANOVA) for numerical covariates; chi-square test or Fisher's exact for categorical covariates, where appropriate.