Perioperative management of the head and neck cancer patient

The perioperative care of patients with head and neck cancer is complex and requires significant preoperative planning and patient education. The issues include analgesia, antibiotics, stoma and wound care, general and chest physiotherapy, thromboprophylaxis and nutrition. This article provides a...

Is it possible to fix condylar neck fractures with one plate?

Fractures of the condylar neck are fairly common and account for over 25% of all mandible fractures. Over the years a number of modalities have been used to fix these fractures. Direct reduction is complicated by the overlying proximity of...

Old age and postoperative complications of head and neck free flaps

This review examined the relationship between free flap survival in older patients and whether this correlated with specific co-morbid conditions and a ‘cut off’ age.The authors did exclude some papers that specifically focused on one co-morbid condition, such as diabetes,...

Facelifting after radiotherapy for head and neck tumours

This paper sought to determine whether facelifting in patients with prior radiotherapy for head and neck cancer was safe. This study focuses on a small sample of 16 patients matched to controls who were retrospectively assessed for major surgical morbidity....

Multiple free flaps for head and neck cancer

Most patients with advanced head and neck cancers now undergo microvascular free flap reconstruction. This is mainly as flaps facilitate complete tumour and margin removal by providing reliable wound coverage and better restoration of form and function. However, despite this,...

Extranodal NK/T cell lymphoma in the head and neck

The authors present a retrospective single institution review of patients with a very rare variant of non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL). They report on the occurrence, clinical course and outcomes of their patients with natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL) nasal type. Sixty-three patients...

Evidence based review of management for common head and neck cancers

As part of the PRS evidence based review series, this well written review summarises the up-to-date knowledge regarding the surgical and non-surgical management of the common facial skin cancers. The review is limited to BCC, SCC, MM and Merkel Cell...