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The Lived Experience Of Recovery Following Transoral Robotic Surgery (Tors) For Head And Neck Cancer, Katharine Mahalik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Ongoing advances in minimally invasive surgical techniques, such as transoral robotic surgery (TORS), has enabled select patients with head and neck cancer to receive treatment that results in less disfigurement and dysfunction compared with traditional approaches. While TORS research has focused mainly on functional surgical outcomes, a need exists to understand recovery following TORS from the patient perspective. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used to recruit patients who had recently undergone TORS at a major academic health system in northeastern US. Data were collected using audio-recorded telephone interviews and field notes and analyzed concurrently. Participants included 17 HNCS (12 …