To find out the most easily identifiable and anatomically consistent landmark for identification of facial nerve during parotid surgery. Ten cadaveric dissections and ten live parotid surgeries for different types of parotid tumours were done. Cadaveric dissection was performed in the Department of Anatomy and the surgeries were done in the Department of ENT and Head and Neck surgery of R. G. Kar Medical College of Kolkata. The distance of the facial nerve trunk from three most commonly used landmarks (viz., tympanomastoid suture, tragal pointer and posterior belly of digastric muscle) was measured in both cadaver and live patients. The ease of identification of the nerve trunk using each of the landmarks, particularly during live surgery was also assessed. The mean distance of the tympanomastoid suture from the facial nerve trunk was 3.5 mm (cadaver) and 3.87 mm (live surgery), the tragal pointer was found to be at a mean distance of 16.61 mm (cadaver) and 16.36 mm (live surgery) and in case of the posterior belly of digastric muscle it was 7.41 mm (cadaver) and 8.03 mm (live surgery). During live surgery the posterior belly of digastric was found to be the most easily identifiable landmark with a consistent anatomical relationship with the nerve trunk. The posterior belly of digastric muscle is the most easily identifiable and a very consistent landmark for facial nerve dissection during parotidectomy. When supplemented with the tragal pointer, accuracy in identifying the facial nerve trunk is very high, thereby avoiding inadvertent injury to the nerve trunk.

Here, a rare case of myoepithelial carcinoma arising from infratemporal fossa has been described along with its treatment options and outcome.

Congenital cervical midline cleft (CCMC) is a rare disease of the head and neck region with only a few reported series. The patients attending the ENT or Plastic surgery OPD of a tertiary referral hospital of eastern India were screened for the presence of CCMC. All the patients found to have the developmental abnormality were included in the study and treated. Five patients were identified as having CCMC within the 7 year study duration. Of them three were female and two male. The youngest patient was a 2 day old baby and 25 years was the maximum age of presentation in the present series. All except the new born were treated by surgical excision and primary repair of the neck defect. In literature CCMC has been described almost exclusively in the Caucasian population. The present series documents the occurrence of this developmental abnormality in the Indian population. This is perhaps the first case series on CCMC to be presented from the Indian subcontinent.

Abstract38 cases of sarcoma of head and neck region were analysed in a retrospective way in relation to age, anatomic location, histological, clinical profi le, and surgical approaches. Compared to other types of head and neck neoplasms, such as squamous cell carcinoma, soft tissue sarcomas have low rates of regional metastases. However the biological behaviour of soft tissue sarcoma is more aggressive specially in paediatric age group. In the present series, CT scan was considered as the primary modality of investigation. Surgery generally has been recommended as the primary method of treatment for achieving local control, except in those high-grade tumours arising in sites not amenable to resection. 3-year and 5-year survival rates in this present series 50% and 31.6% respectively.