Quality of Life in Head and Neck Cancer Patients Following Neck Dissection: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

There is widespread agreement that surgical approaches offer an improved quality of life (QOL) in Head and Neck cancer (HNC) patients. And the surgery results have been examined by several available research tools, with particular emphasis on radical and modified neck dissections to determine the QOL in HNC patients. This study is to ascertain the QOL after neck dissection in patients with Head and Neck cancer. With the aid of current research tools, this review aims to quantify the health-related quality of life for head and neck cancer patients who have undergone neck dissection. The published search was operated from PubMed, Web of science, CINAHL, PEDro and Google Scholar to relate the impairment in quality of life after neck dissection in head and neck cancer patients. The published data record was commonly referred to from 1999 to 2022. We have not included any unpublished studies, clinical trial registries, or grey literature such as government or organization reports. Out of 250 searched articles only 18 studies fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion, Health- related Quality of life (HRQOL), and domains of various outcome measures showed an overall increase in QOL in patients with HNC who underwent Neck dissection. There has been a significant reduction in pain-related QOL, an improvement in prognostic value and a reduction in body pain in HRQOL, and a significant improvement in various areas of outcome measurement tools like SF-36, FACT-HN,EORTC.