Surgical procedures
The most common operation described was neck dissection (296), of which 53 were combined with a pectoralis major flap. Other procedures included parotidectomy (23), total laryngectomy (52), lymph node excision (34) and submandibular gland excision (18). Two papers, comparing cyanoacrylate and sutures, performed a variety of operations including 32 thyroidectomies.
Platysma or subcutaneous suturing before skin closure was described in 4 papers. Operations were performed by a single senior surgeon in 2 studies. Four papers described use of drains and 4 used post-operative intravenous antibiotics. Study characteristics and details of surgical procedures are summarised in table 2 .