1

Introduction

The neck dissection (ND) is a common procedure completed by head and neck oncologic and ear, nose and throat surgeons. The current modality of surgical education for an ND and other operations usually consists of a medical student or resident observing an attending physician, assisting to some degree, and learning from this practice and through listening to technique lectures and reading texts. While surgical texts provide some sense of a standard in operative technique when performing an ND, these study tools to do not always accurately reflect the variance in technical preferences by surgeons with different geographic practices, educational backgrounds and procedure volume.

The study attempts to understand how current experts in the field learned their method of ND technique through a survey sent out to current surgeon members of the American Head and Neck Society (AHNS). Specifically, we hope to identify what current surgeons believe was or was not useful in their training to better educate the next generation of head and neck surgeons. This study hopes to be part of an ongoing effort to share knowledge of “best practices” used by head and neck surgeons in the United States and international community.