Functional neck dissection. A description of operative technique.

The operative technique involved in functional neck dissection is described to clarify its stepwise execution. Recent interest in functional preservation demands therapeutic techniques that are oncologically reliable but not multilating. The functional neck dissection seems to be a reasonable alternative to radical radiotherapy and a preferred alternative to traditional neck dissection in the control of regional metastasis when disease in the neck is either occult of still confined to mobile lymph nodes.