Principles of Head and Neck Reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nitin A Pagedar and Ralph W Gilbert

INTRODUCTION The recorded history of head and neck reconstructive surgery dates back five millennia with the Edwin Smith papyrus (1), which documented Egyptian techniques for management of wounds of the head and neck. In the intervening time, reconstructive surgery has been propelled forward by the creativity of the discipline’s practitioners, utilizing an ever-growing body of anatomic and physiologic information.