[Tumor surgery]

Surgery is still the primary therapeutic approach in treatment of tumors in the head and neck area, dating back to the early nineteenth century. More than 150 years ago, hemimaxillectomies and mandibular resections as well as hemiglossectomies were already performed by leading surgeons. The block principle we are now following dates back to Crile, who also established the principle of cervical lymph node dissection. Ablative oncologic surgery has always been closely linked with plastic and reconstructive surgery, rendering radical surgical interventions possible without disfiguring patients. The development of facial reconstructive surgery proceeded in stages, in the first instance as secondary reconstruction using tube pedicled flaps. The change to the concept of primary reconstruction occurred via arterialized skin flaps and myocutaneous flaps to the widely accepted and performed free tissue transfer. Free bone grafting, inaugurated earlier and still representing the majority of bone grafting, has been supplemented for certain reconstructive purposes by free vascularized bone transfer from various donor sites. Although the five-year-survival rate of carcinoma of the oral cavity has remained unchanged in the past 30 years, distinctive improvements in tumor surgery can be recorded. This is primarily based on improved diagnostics such as modern imaging techniques and the refinement of surgical techniques. The DOSAK has worked out distinctive guidelines for effective ablative oncologic surgery. Surgical approaches offering wide exposure and carrying low morbidity play a decisive role in radical resections. For this reason, midfacial degloving offers an essential improvement for the resection of midface tumors, especially from an aesthetic point of view. Tumors situated deep behind the viscerocranium at the skull base can be clearly exposed either through a lateral approach following a temporary osteotomy of the mandibular ramus or a transmandibular, transmaxillar, or transfacial approach with minimal morbidity. Concerning the concept of neck dissection, radical techniques are more and more abandoned in favor of a more conservative procedure. Actual inquiries concerning present surgical procedures as to the surgical strategy in "N(o)-neck" or marginal and segmental resection in mandibular adherent carcinomas demand scientific clarification.