Role of Skin Staples in Head and Neck Cancer Surgery

Currently staples are widely used in orthopedics, scalp & abdominal surgeries and are also very helpful in securing grafts with or without the help of sutures. Advantages of staples include rapid placement, excellent cosmetic results, less tissue strangulation than sutures, minimal tissue reactivity, and low incidence of wound infections. Reported disadvantages of staples include interference with computed tomography scans, less meticulous approximation of wound edges and cost. Skin staples are better alternative to conventional sutures in head & neck cancer surgery as they offer: Ten times faster wound closure than sutures. Cost effectiveness if total cost of closure is considered although cost of material was almost double than suture closure. Similar results to sutures in terms of patient comfort, aesthetics outcome and complication rate. The book is useful both for the graduates and the postgraduate students of general surgery and dentistry.