ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses head and neck surgeries. It also explains procedures, patient characteristics, preoperatively, perioperatively, postoperative management, preoperative management, intraoperative management and postoperatively for the same. These surgeries include dental abscess, dental surgery, face and jaw fractures, laryngectomy and radical neck dissection, operations on the salivary glands, parathyroid surgery and thyroidectomy. Dental abscesses usually result from infected teeth and cause localized pain and swelling. They may restrict mouth opening and can be associated with systemic illness, pain, pyrexia and malaise. All community dental work requiring general anaesthesia is now carried out in a hospital setting in the presence of an anaesthetist. Laryngectomy and its variants, e.g. vertical partial hemilaryngectomy, supraglottic partial laryngectomy and supracricoid partial laryngectomy, are performed for malignant disease of the larynx. Parathyroid surgery is usually undertaken for removal of a parathyroid adenoma. Local anaesthesia, regional anaesthesia involving superficial cervical plexus blocks or more commonly general anaesthesia have been used.
