At this moment, the world leaves under the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak pandemic.As Otolaryngologists -Head & Neck Surgeons, we need to perform and participate in examinations and procedures within the head and neck region and airway that are at particularly high risk of exposure and infection because of aerosol and droplet contamination. One of those surgical procedures on demand at this moment is tracheostomy, due the increasing admission in ICU departments and the increased need of ventilatory support secondary to respiratory distress syndrome. This review of international guidelines for tracheostomy in COVID-19 infected patients, aiming to summarize in a systematic way the available recommendations from 18 guidelines from all over the world.

At this moment, the world lives under the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak pandemic. As Otolaryngologists -Head & Neck Surgeons, we need to perform and participate in examinations and procedures within the head and neck region and airway that carry a particularly high risk of exposure and infection because of aerosol and droplet contamination. One of those surgical procedures in demand at this moment is tracheostomy due the increasing ICU admissions. This review of international guidelines for tracheostomy in COVID-19 infected patients, aims to summarize in a systematic way the available recommendations: indications, timing, technique and safety measures for tracheostomy, from all over the world.

Carbon Dioxide transoral laser microsurgery represents a reliable option for the treatment of early glottic carcinoma (Tis–T2), with good functional and oncological outcomes, nowadays representing one of the main options in larynx preservation protocols. The development and improvement of laser devices means surgeons are able to use more precise instruments compared with classic cold dissection in laser-assisted phonosurgery. Secondary effects on voice, swallowing, or quality of life as well as complications have been well documented. Also, with the introduction of a new proposal for staging systems following the principle of the three-dimensional map of isoprognostic zones, the use of narrow-band imaging in clinical evaluation and intraoperative, and the implementation of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance during preoperative evaluation, the development of new tools to improve surgical quality and preliminary reports regarding the use of carbon dioxide laser in transoral robotic surgery suggests an exciting future for this technique.

SUMMARY The incidence of distant metastasis (DM) in head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) is relatively low. Multiple risk factors have been described for development of DM at baseline and after treatment. However, to date, there is no meta-analysis or systematic review investigating the relationships between clinical and histopathological factors and the appearance of DM in HNSCC patients. Among 1,272 eligible articles, 23 met inclusion criteria for qualitative analysis, and 6 for quantitative analysis. The meta-analysis on 5,353 patients showed that hypopharyngeal site, T3-T4 categories, extranodal extension, positive lymph node size > 6 cm, locoregional failure after previous treatment(s) and poor differentiation all significantly increase the risk of DM. According to our results, patients with the above-mentioned clinical and histopathological risk factors should be considered at high risk for DM and therefore submitted to strict pre-treatment assessment and undergo careful post-therapeutic follow-up.

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Radiomics and texture analysis represent a new option in our biomarkers arsenal. These techniques extract a large number of quantitative features, analyzing their properties to incorporate them in clinical decision-making. Laryngeal cancer represents one of the most frequent cancers in the head and neck area. We hypothesized that radiomics features can be included as a laryngeal cancer precision medicine tool, as it is able to non-invasively characterize the overall tumor accounting for heterogeneity, being a prognostic and/or predictive biomarker derived from routine, standard of care, imaging data, and providing support during the follow up of the patient, in some cases avoiding the need for biopsies. The larynx represents a unique diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for clinicians due to its complex tridimensional anatomical structure. Its complex regional and functional anatomy makes it necessary to enhance our diagnostic tools in order to improve decision-making protocols, aimed at better survival and functional results. For this reason, this technique can be an option for monitoring the evolution of the disease, especially in surgical and non-surgical organ preservation treatments. This concise review article will explain basic concepts about radiomics and discuss recent progress and results related to laryngeal cancer.

(1) Background: Despite the increasing use of intraoperative facial nerve monitoring during parotid gland surgery or the improvement in the preoperative radiological assessment, facial nerve injury (FNI) continues to be the most feared complication; (2) Methods: patients who underwent parotid gland surgery for benign tumors between June 2010 and June 2019 were included in this study aiming to make a proof of concept about the reliability of an artificial neural networks (AAN) algorithm for prediction of FNI and compared with a multivariate linear regression (MLR); (3) Results: Concerning prediction accuracy and performance, the ANN achieved the highest sensitivity (86.53% vs 46.23%), specificity (95.67% vs 92.59%), PPV (87.28% vs 66.94%), NPV (95.68% vs 83.37%), ROC–AUC (0.960 vs 0.769) and accuracy (93.42 vs 80.42) than MLR; and (4) Conclusions: ANN prediction models can be useful for otolaryngologists—head and neck surgeons—and patients to provide evidence-based predictions about the risk of FNI. As an advantage, the possibility to develop a calculator using clinical, radiological and histological or cytological information can improve our ability to generate patients counselling before surgery.

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Functional neck dissection (FND) represents a surgical procedure usually associated with less morbidity. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> An observational, retrospective, analysis of patients diagnosed with any type of head and neck malignancy was designed to summarize and report the incidence of postoperative complications in patients undergoing FND including just those levels described for selective neck dissections in a tertiary university hospital between June 2016 and June 2019. <b><i>Results:</i></b> 131 patients met the inclusion criteria. The total number of sides studied was 200. 40.5% of the patients suffer a complication in the postoperative period, being the spinal accessory nerve (SAN) injury the most common complication (10%). We did not find any statistical ­correlation between the previous organ-preservation treatments and surgical complications (<i>p</i> = 0.207). An advanced T stage (<i>p</i> = 0.009) and the need of bilateral FND (<i>p</i> = 0.034) were significantly correlated with a higher risk of surgical complications. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> FND represents a useful technique. In this study, 40.5% of the patients suffer a complication in the postoperative period, being the SAN injury the most common complication. However, these data contribute to increasing our knowledge about surgical complications related to FND.