Head and neck cancer patients: impact of diabetes mellitus on surgical outcomes.

Purpose: Cancer patients with significant comorbidities undergoing major surgical intervention are at high risk for peri/postoperative complications and a prolonged hospital stay. Diabetes mellitus is a prevalent chronic metabolic disease, reported to affect surgery outcomes of malignancies. The purpose of this article was to evaluate the impact of diabetes mellitus on the development of local and systemic complications as well as the length of the hospital stay, after major surgery for Head and Neck (H&N) cancer.