[Functional surgery for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma]

Surgery for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma can alter speech, swallowing, and cosmoses. Recent tendency is to avoid mutilating surgery unless the tumour is aggressive or resistant to chemotherapy and or radiotherapy. Functional surgery is being widely employed, and for example it may vary between conventional partial surgery and endoscopic laser surgery for small sized vocal cord cancers. Various new reconstructive procedures have been developed to help early functional restoration. Loco-regional flaps can be used to replace gums and avoid dental extractions. Free flaps with micro-vascular anastomosis can be employed for immediate reconstruction of extensive surgical defects involving pharyngeal wall, tongue, mandible and mid-face to restore better function and cosmoses. Few recently developed techniques can be also employed in selected cases of laryngo-pharyngeal cancers to avoid permanent laryngeal mutilation. Another goal of functional surgery is to decrease the postoperative radiotherapy or chemo-radiotherapy sequelae, and obtain successful postoperative functional rehabilitation.