Neck dissection: current concepts and future directions.

For individuals diagnosed with head and neck cancer, neck dissection may be performed for therapy or disease staging. The classification of neck dissection and the definition of precise anatomic landmarks have allowed for this operation, and its many variations, to become standardized world-wide. SLNBX shows promise in its ability to accurately stage NO head and neck cancer and may allow patients with no micro metastatic disease to avoid neck dissection. Before this technique becomes adopted into routine clinical practice, however, it must first be prospectively scrutinized in large patient populations. Regardless of the future role of SLNBX in the management of head and neck cancer, currently it is only through a complete understanding of the clinical, theoretic, and technical aspects of neck dis-section that surgeons may benefit individual patients and the head and neck cancer patient population as a whole.