Coblation in the Treatment of Isolated Subglottic Stenosis

Sunday, October 18, 2026

2:36 PM - 2:42 PM PT

Location: 406B

Presenting Author(s)

MP

Maria K. Pomponio, MD

Resident
St Luke's Hospital - Anderson Campus Program
Easton, PA, United States

Senior Author(s)

AJ

Aaron J. Jaworek, MD

Physician
St. Luke's University Health Network
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States

Disclosure(s):

Maria K. Pomponio, MD:

faculty for this accredited education activity has no relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Introduction: Subglottic stenosis (SGS) can be treated with a variety of surgical techniques, including dilation, serial steroid injection, laser, and radiofrequency coblation. Studies on the use of coblation for SGS are limited. We sought to investigate outcomes with SGS using coblation.

Methods: After IRB approval, isolated SGS cases from 2016 to 2024 were queried. Demographic, clinical, and surgical data were extracted from the EMR. Stata was used for all analyses.  A p-value < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Included were 18 patients with SGS. Almost all patients were female (n=17, 94%). Cases were either idiopathic (n=14, 77.8%), intubation related (n=3, 16.7%) or autoimmune (n=1, 5.5%). Of 33 total surgeries, the following techniques were used: Coblation (n=23, 69.7%), steroid injection (n=27, 81.8%), mitomycin (n=28, 84.8%), and balloon dilation (n=32, 97.0%). Most surgeries used all 4 modalities. Those who had coblation used during the initial surgery (n=13, 72.2%) had lower rates of needing additional surgery (n=4/13, 30.1%), compared to those who did not have coblation used (n=3/5, 60%), which was trending towards significance (p= 0.08). Severity of SGS improved from an average of 73% pre-intervention to 17% post-intervention, which was similar regardless of if coblation was used (P=019). When patients did require a 2nd surgery, the average time interval was 738 days, similar regardless of surgical technique (P= 0.5043). There were no surgical complications or placement of a tracheotomy in this cohort.

Conclusions: Coblation is effective to lyse scar bands radially or perform segmental resection of scar to maintain patency of the subglottic airway. Future studies are needed to compare coblation to other techniques such as CO2 laser or balloon dilation alone.