Introduction Thyroid nodules are a common clinical problem, diagnosed by palpation on clinical examination in approximately 5% of women and 1% of men in Western society. Their presence requires evaluation to exclude thyroid cancer, the incidence of which is 15%…
Introduction Although thyroid disease has been recognized for centuries, consistently accepted techniques of thyroid surgery date back approximately 100 years. With a combined mortality of 40% from hemorrhage and sepsis, thyroidectomy was banned by the French Academy of Medicine in…
Introduction The otolaryngologist is often involved in surgery to provide access to the cervical spine. This is usually for the treatment of cervical spondylosis by the orthopedic or neurologic surgeon. Rarely the head and neck surgeon will be involved in…
Introduction The potential for a seemingly benign entity like an infected tooth, tonsil, or skin lesion to cause life-threatening illness is due to the complex relationship between the spaces of the neck. Deep neck infection (DNI) may result from any…
Introduction Patients with evidence of vascular or soft tissue trauma must be approached in a similar fashion as all trauma patients. Primary and secondary surveys initially screen for any imminently life-threatening injuries and guide the acute workup. Occasionally, that survey…
Introduction Traditional approaches for surgery of the neck involve a relatively long incision that is usually through a transverse skin crease. The length of the incision varies and depends on the procedure to be performed, but it must be of…
Introduction Most of the tumors that originate in the poststyloid parapharyngeal space (PPS) are tumors of neural origin. Most of these are paragangliomas (PGLs), the most common of which is the carotid body tumor (CBT). It is usually possible to…
Introduction To safely resect neural tumors of the parapharyngeal space (PPS) and to counsel patients about potential consequences and complications of surgery requires that the surgeon has a detailed knowledge of the surgical anatomy of the PPS, requests appropriate radiological…
Introduction The posterolateral neck dissection is an operation that is typically used in the management of cutaneous cancers of the posterior scalp, auricle, or upper neck. It is done either electively, to stage the clinically node-negative neck, or therapeutically, to…
Introduction The management of patients with tumors of the parapharyngeal space (PPS) is a challenge for head and neck surgeons. The diverse anatomic structures in the PPS give rise to many different tumors, and the relationship of such lesions to…