LXXXI A Conservation Technique in Radical Neck Dissection

Neck dissection, as originally conceived and generally performed, is a widely destructive operation by which the whole of the fat and cellular tissue of the neck, together with the internal jugular vein, the spinal accessory nerve, the digastric, stylohyoid and sternomastoid muscles, and possibly the submaxillary gland are removed in one block.Since Crile" stated in 1906 that the excision of the jugular vein is the key to neck dissection, this vein has been routinely excised, and no objection has been raised to the sacrifice of the sternomastoid muscle, the spinal accessory nerve, or the submaxillary gland if the submaxillary lymph nodes must be included in the dissection.