Session

Overview: The session is facing one of the main current issues in Head and Neck surgery. The new (with robot telemanipulation, TORS) and old transoral techniques (transoral laser micro surgery, TLM) have the common goal of achieving the proven compliance with tumor-free resection margins with possible maximum protection of the functionally relevant surrounding tissue. Despite the 5mm R0 resection, which is conventionally described as a "clear margin" in the guidelines, the scientific debate about the prognostically optimal minimum distance of the tumor-boarder continues. The speakers will meet this point coming from different sides of view. Christian Simon will present current developments on available robotic systems for head and neck surgery, exploiting them beyond trans-oral surgery, i.e hybrid approaches and give some outlook to new systems awaiting FDA approval, and future concepts, i.e. “soft“ robots. Andrezej Marszalek will point out the limits and possibilities of pathological diagnostics and the discussion that also takes place outside the oral cavity about the recommendation to take frozen sections better from the harvested specimen or from the tumor bed after resection. Finally, Giovanni Succo will introduce new intraoperative visualization tools to detect better margins like 3D transoral exo/endoscopic surgery.