Two-team approach to surgery for head and neck cancer

The authors describe a 10-year experience with the two-team approach to complex operations for head and neck cancer. The general surgical team is responsible for the excision of the lesion and the plastic surgical team for the reconstruction. Twenty-seven patients have been treated in this way. A brief history, a general outline of overall management, the approach to oral, pharyngeal and extrinsic laryngeal lesions and the methods of reconstruction are described. The advantages and disadvantages of the method are presented. This approach has been found beneficial to the patients and satisfactory to the two surgical teams. In the opinion of the authors the advantages of this approach outweigh the disadvantages.