ABSTRACT
Post-surgical complications after oral and oropharyngeal cancer surgery are not rare occurrences. The combination of patient factors, such as a high prevalence of older patients, tobacco/alcohol abuse and comorbidities, in addition to surgery-related factors, such as extensive resections and the clean–contaminated nature of oral and oropharyngeal surgery, results in a significantly elevated risk for developing complications (1–4). The implications of surgical complications include functional and cosmetic morbidity, prolonged hospitalization, increased treatment cost, delay in starting postoperative adjuvant therapy and mortality (5,6).
