What are the innate advantages of head and neck surgery in treating head and neck tumors?

Since head and neck tumors are quite extensive and the anatomical structure is very complex, and the first symptom of head and neck malignant tumors is often swelling of the lymph nodes of the head and neck, and the symptoms of the primary lesion often appear later, the diagnosis of head and neck tumors is often difficult. Otolaryngology-head and neck surgeons not only know the anatomy and examination methods of superficial parts of head and neck, but also are familiar with the anatomy and examination methods of deep parts of head and neck, such as middle ear, inner ear, skull base, nasal cavity, sinuses, nasopharynx, orbital tip, hypopharynx and larynx. Therefore, otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgeons can consider more comprehensively metastatic tumors with unknown primary foci in the head and neck, and can take biopsies of suspicious lesions in all parts of the head and neck, which is crucial for early diagnosis, early treatment, and improvement of efficacy, which is an unparalleled advantage of other specialists. The commonly used specialized examinations in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery include nasal endoscopy system, fiberoptic nasopharyngoscopy system, otoscopy equipment, otomicroscopy system, other CT examination, MRI examination, fine needle aspiration cytology examination, local excisional biopsy pathology examination, etc., which provide innate conditions for the diagnosis of head and neck tumors. For both benign and malignant head and neck tumors, surgery is still the most important treatment, while malignant tumors often require lymph node dissection in the neck, and resection of defective parts often requires transfer of tissues from other parts of the body for repair, which greatly increases the difficulty of surgery. Otolaryngology-head and neck surgeons are familiar with the anatomy of the head and neck, and can perform complete resection of primary tumors and tumors with multi-organ invasion and metastasis in all parts of the head and neck. Besides surgical treatment, comprehensive treatment is also very important for head and neck malignant tumors. Pre-operative and post-operative radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and post-operative functional recovery treatment are very meaningful to improve the five-year survival rate of head and neck malignant tumors and improve post-operative quality of life, which are also what otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgeons are good at, and this innate advantage they have can be seen through the treatment of the following diseases. There are many surgical modalities for laryngeal, hypopharyngeal cancer, and otorhinolaryngology head and neck surgery must analyze each patient in detail, and the indications for each procedure must be strictly mastered in order to serve the purpose of both curing the tumor and preserving the function. At the same time, laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers in the middle and advanced stages must be treated with simultaneous cervical lymph node dissection (link) and functional reconstruction of laryngeal defect repair, and some patients must be supplemented with radiotherapy and chemotherapy after surgery, and swallowing function exercise and vocal function exercise after surgery are also the key to improve the treatment effect. Treatment of benign and malignant tumors of the nasal cavity and sinuses is based on surgery. The traditional surgical method is to make an incision in the nasal face or in the upper lip to enter the nasal cavity and sinuses for tumor removal. The surgery is very traumatic, painful and long recovery period, and often leaves facial scars. Nowadays, ENT surgeons can perform surgical resection of the above-mentioned diseases through the nose under the nasal endoscope, avoiding nasal facial and upper lip incisions. The surgery is less invasive, minimizes patient pain, minimizes the risk of complications, has a shorter recovery period, and achieves the same level of results as traditional surgery. For certain more limited nasal malignant tumors (such as malignant changes of involuted papilloma, olfactoryoblastoma, etc.), the traditional surgical approach is highly traumatic and disruptive to function. Transnasal resection of tumors avoids the drawbacks of traditional surgery (traumatic and phase-breaking), maximizes preservation of nasal function, can achieve the same efficacy as traditional surgery, and maintains the patient’s original quality of life. Tumors of the middle ear, inner ear and lateral skull base often have ear symptoms as the first symptom, so they are often first seen in otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery, and the middle ear, inner ear and lateral skull base tumors are very deep and require special surgical access, which often requires microsurgical techniques.