Functional evaluation of the spinal accessory nerve after neck dissection.

The pain and dysfunction associated with a loss of innervation by the spinal accessory nerve has motivated surgeons to modify the classic radical neck dissection. A prospective study of 109 patients who underwent either a radical neck dissection or a modification of it with preservation of the spinal accessory nerve revealed that those patients in whom the nerve, muscle, and vein were preserved had less dysfunction (30 percent) than those with nerve preservation only (50 percent) or classic radical neck dissection (60 percent). In addition, even when the functional disability was the same, there was less associated pain with nerve-sparing procedures. Furthermore, a large group of patients (40 percent) who underwent classic radical neck dissection had minimal disability. Given these results, a prospective study of recurrence data in these patients is indicated.