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Updated: Oct 21, 2025
Intraoperative Assessment of Resection Margins in Oral Cavity Cancer: This is the Way
Published on: May 10, 2021
Is Revision Surgery Necessary for Patients With High Risk of Recurrence After Parotidectomy? A Multicenter
Médarine Roch1, Olivier Mauvais2, Sebastien Vergez3
1ENT Department, Regional University Hospital of Nancy, Nancy, France.
Objectives:
Close margin is a frequent situation after parotidectomy. The need for systematic prophylactic revision surgery is a question that arises regularly for malignant tumors, as it exposes to a high risk of facial palsy, while oncological benefits are unclear.
Study Design:
retrospective study.
Setting:
Multicentric.
Subjects And Methods:
We included all patients operated for systematic revision surgery in case of close margins after parotidectomy for a malignant tumor and analyzed the rate of tumor residue and its risk factors.
Results:
A tumor residue was identified in 43.5% of 23 cases, but none in case of initial complete excision with supra-millimetric margins. Invaded lymph nodes were identified in 6 cases, but none in case of low-grade tumors.
Conclusions:
Systematic revision seems mandatory in case of infra-millimetric margins and high-grade tumors or positive lymph node; further studies are needed to confirm whether it can be spared for T1-T2/N0 low-grade tumors, with close margins but complete initial excision.
