Salvage neck dissection for squamous cell carcinoma is performed for residual or recurrent nodal disease after chemoradiotherapy or radical radiotherapy for locally advanced head and neck cancer. Our study aims to investigate the extent to which salvage neck dissection can be safely performed in treating recurrent or residual nodal metastasis.

A retrospective analysis of 53 patients with suspected residual or recurrent nodal disease after primary treatment (January 2016 to December 2018) was performed.

Pathological confirmation of viable squamous cell carcinoma following surgery was found in 43.4 per cent of patients. Post-operative infection, accessory and vagal nerve injuries were more common in patients with dissection of levels I–V than that of levels II–IV. There was no significant difference in three-year survival rate between patients with levels II–IV dissection and that of levels I–V dissection (p = 0.84).

The extent of salvage neck dissection can be limited to reduce post-operative complications while maintaining acceptable oncological outcomes.

This study aimed to determine the incidence of metastatic squamous cell carcinoma in patients with an isolated cervical cystic mass, and to describe the clinical features that might predict the origin of cystic tumours.

Adult patients with isolated lateral cervical cystic masses who were scheduled for surgery from 1st January 2010 to 31st August 2016 in two tertiary care referral centres in Slovakia were analysed retrospectively.

The incidence of cystic metastases in the whole cohort and in patients aged over 40 years were 9.9 per cent and 18.5 per cent, respectively. The incidence in patients aged over 40 years (18.5 per cent) was statistically significant (p = 0.003).

The incidence of cystic squamous cell carcinoma metastases in lateral cervical cysts in patients aged over 40 years is high enough to call for excisional biopsy with frozen section, panendoscopy with direct biopsies, tonsillectomy and even neck dissection in cases of histologically confirmed carcinoma.