Reconstruction of complicated skull base defects utilizing free tissue transfer.

We managed five patients with large skull base defects complicated by complex infections with microvascular free tissue transfer. The first patient developed an infection, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak, and meningitis after undergoing a translabyrinthine resection of an acoustic neuroma. The second patient had a history of a gunshot wound to the temporal bone, with a large defect and an infected cholesteatoma that caused several episodes of meningitis.

Role of planned neck dissection for advanced metastatic disease in tongue base or tonsil squamous cell carcinoma treated with radiotherapy.

Objective: At the conclusion of this article, the reader should be able to discuss the need for planned neck dissection for advanced cervical diseases in the tongue base and tonsil cancer after treatment with radiotherapy.

Background: In the past 5 years, we have treated patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the tonsil and tongue base with radiotherapy as the primary therapeutic modality. A planned complete neck dissection was performed on all patients with N2 or greater cervical disease regardless of response to radiotherapy.