Early history of neck dissection

With the exception of distant metastases, the presence of lymph node metastasis in the neck is accepted as the single most important adverse independent prognostic factor and an indicator of survival in squamous carcinoma of the head and neck. Neck dissection in its various forms is the standard surgical treatment for clinical, subclinical and subpathologic metastatic cancer to the neck. The pertinent literature from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century was reviewed. The four giants of late nineteenth century surgery: von Langenbeck, Billroth, von Volkmann and Kocher developed and reported the early cases of different types of neck dissection. Butlin, in England, conceived and developed the concept of elective neck dissection. In 1888, the Polish surgeon Jawdyńsky reported and described in detail the first successful extended en bloc neck dissection. Crile, in 1905 and 1906, reported the first significant series of radical en bloc neck dissections, bringing this procedure to the attention of the medical world as an effective operation with reproducible technique and results. The greatest impetus to the status of this surgical procedure came from Martin and colleagues, who published a monumental report in 1951 of 1,450 cases that established the place and technique of radical neck dissection in the modern treatment of head and neck cancer. Neck dissection, for treatment of cervical lymph node metastases in head and neck cancer, was conceived and attempted in the nineteenth century, with some limited success reported by the end of that era. An effective operation was described and reported in the early twentieth century and evolved by the mid century into a fundamental tool in the management of patients with head and neck cancer.