Comparison of standard modified shrobingers incision versus transverse cervical incision for neck dissection – our experience

Aim: To compare the feasibility and outcomes of Transverse Cervical incision and Modified Schobinger's incision for neck dissection. Materials and methods: Patients having oral cavity cancer with positive metastatic nodal disease in the neck requiring ablative surgery were included. Patients requiring a lip split incision for tumor ablation were excluded from the study. A total of forty patients were selected and were randomized in two groups. Transverse Cervical incision was placed in group A for neck dissection and a standard Modified Schobinger's incision in group B. These two groups were then compared on the basis of criteria's like adequacy of surgical access, flap dehiscence or necrosis, number of lymph nodes retrieved, length of incision, wound contracture, length of hospital stay and cosmetic result. Results: Result of our study show that Transverse Cervical incision had adequate surgical access, adequate lymph node retrieval, and better cosmetic result, less postoperative complications with early discharge of patient as compared to Modified Schobinger's incision for neck dissection. Conclusion: According to our experience, we believe that this transverse cervical incision in oral cancer patients can be very useful which fulfills all the requirements for neck dissection in terms of required surgical access, adequate lymph nodes retrieval, good healing of skin flaps and better cosmetic result without any postoperative complications