Selective neck dissection in the management of squamous cell carcinoma of the upper digestive tract

Selective neck dissection has been used clinically in elective treatment of carcinoma, although many surgeons continue to advocate modified radical or radical neck dissection for therapeutic management of the neck. In a retrospective study 167 previously untreated patients were reviewed following curative laser microsurgical resections of oral or pharyngeal primary tumors and a unior bilateral selective neck dissection. In all, 221 (54 bilateral) neck dissections were performed. In patients with oral primary disease lymph nodes of levels I-III were removed, while nodes in levels II and III were removed in patients with pharyngeal tumors. Level IV was dissected when several metastases were suspected during operation. The posterior triangle was not dissected. Lymph nodes were histopathologically negative in 73 patients and positive in 94 patients. Twenty-five of these latter cases had pN1 disease, 55 had pN2b disease and 10 had bilateral lymph node metastases. Twenty patients in the pN0 group and 63 patients in the pN+ group received postoperative radiotherapy (to 56.7 Gy to the primary site and 52.5 Gy to the neck). With a median follow-up interval of 34 months, recurrence in the dissected neck occurred in 3 of 73 patients (4.1%) with pN0 disease and 6 of 90 patients (6.6%) with pN+ necks. Four patients with pN+ necks had simultaneous recurrences at the primary site. The addition of adjuvant radiotherapy seemed to improve disease control in the neck and improve overall survival in patients with an unfavorable prognosis due to multiple metastases or metastases with extracapsular spread.