Posterolateral neck dissection.

The charts of 17 patients who received postauricular, suboccipital, and posterior triangle neck dissection for primary malignant melanoma or squamous cell carcinoma of the posterior half of the scalp (behind the coronal plane of the tragus) or nape of the neck were reviewed. The regional procedure was applied bilaterally in five of these patients in whom the primary lesion was on or close to the midline. The low recurrence rate in the neck, in the absence of moderate or severe funtional and cosmetic sequelae, makes this regional neck dissection a sound procedure for selected patients.