Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 15, 2026
Modified Radical Neck Dissection for Cervical Metastasis
Published on: February 20, 2026
Predictors of never events in patients undergoing radical dissection of cervical lymph nodes
Veerasathpurush Allareddy1, Nadeem Y Karimbux, Thomas B Dodson
1Department of Developmental Biology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to identify variables associated with infection-related never events in patients undergoing radical neck dissections for head and neck cancer.
Study Design:
All hospitalizations with head and neck cancer that underwent radical dissection of cervical lymph nodes were selected from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Predictor variables included patient and hospital-level factors. Outcome variable was occurrence of ≥1 never events. Association between predictor and outcome variables was examined by using bivariate and multivariable logistic regression models.
Results:
There were 10,660 hospitalizations. At least 1 never event occurred in 7.8% of hospitalizations. Teaching hospitals were associated with higher odds of having ≥1 never event compared with nonteaching hospitals (odds ratio 1.92; P = .02). Presence of comorbid conditions and race were other significant predictors of never events.
Conclusions:
Teaching hospitals and presence of comorbid conditions were associated with higher odds of experiencing a never event.
