Complication and surgical site infection for salvage surgery in head and neck cancer after chemoradiotherapy and bioradiotherapy

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to investigate the complications, surgical site infection (SSI), and survival in salvage surgery without free-flap reconstruction for patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who were treated by platinum-based chemoradiotherapy (Plat-CRT) or cetuximab-based bioradiotherapy (Cet-BRT).

Methods: Thirty-three patients treated by Plat-CRT and six treated by Cet-BRT had salvage surgery. We categorized postoperative complications according to the Clavien-Dindo classification and SSI according to the wound grading scale. Overall survival calculated by Kaplan-Meier method.

Results: Patients with Cet-BRT were significantly associated with the presence of SSI (P<0.01) and grades IIIb-V of the Clavien-Dindo classification (P<0.01) compared with those with Plat-CRT. Patients with Cet-BRT had a significantly lower overall survival than those with Plat-CRT (P<0.05).

Conclusion: We demonstrated that patients with Cet-BRT were significantly more associated with the presence of SSI and grades IIIb-V in the Clavien-Dindo classification than those with CRT.

Keywords: Bioradiotherapy; Chemoradiotherapy; Complication; Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; Salvage surgery.