Prognostic significance of postoperative wound infection on head and neck cancer.

The prognostic significance of wound infections after surgery for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck is controversial. We retrospectively studied the relationship between wound infection, tumor recurrence, and survival rates in 158 patients operated on for supraglottic cancer. All patients had 3-year follow-up. Wound infection developed in 14 patients (8.8%). The overall recurrence rate was 29.7%. For those in whom a wound infection developed the recurrence rate was 57%, compared with 27% for those in whom no such infection developed (p = 0.041). Disease-free survival was also adversely affected in the group of patients with infections, although because of the limited number of patients the differences did not reach statistical significance. We conclude that postoperative wound infection may have an adverse effect on prognosis in squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck.