The Department of Head & Neck Surgery was formed in 2022 with a vision to provide site-specific care to the tumors arising from the head and neck region. Head and neck cancers are the second most common cancers in India. It encompasses a variety of subsites like oral cavity, larynx and pharynx, nose and paranasal sinus, ear canal, anterior and lateral skull base, salivary glands, thyroid and parathyroids, and face. Each of these caters to important functions ranging from simple aesthetics to complex physiologies like special senses, and voice and hormone production.  Being an anatomically critical area, head and neck surgeries demand extreme precision maintaining oncological and surgical principles.

The department performs around 300 major head and neck surgeries in a year, and caters to the patients mostly from Karnataka, Kerala, Goa and Maharashtra. The surgical armamentarium extends from minimally invasive surgeries like micro-laryngoscopy, trans-oral laser surgery to major composite resection of buccal mucosa, mandibulectomy, maxillectomy, glossectomy, laryngectomy, thyroidectomy, sialadenectomy, neck dissection, local and regional pedicled flaps and microvascular free tissue transfer. The department provides evidence-based care through multidisciplinary tumor board approach with Surgical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Medical Oncology, Palliative Medicine, Nuclear Medicine, Radiology, Pathology and Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery. The extensive supportive and rehabilitative care is provided by departments of Speech Language Pathology, Audiology, Physiotherapy, Respiratory therapy, Occupational therapy, Dietetics and Psycho-oncology.

The department is active in academics and healthcare research. It nurtures ethical basic, translational and clinical research by local, national and international collaborations. The department nurtures innovative minds by offering Ph.D. to interested candidates. The three-year-long super speciality training program, M.Ch. Head and Neck Surgery, ensures quality training and didactic education leading to a genre of oncologists capable of providing comprehensive care to patients with head and neck cancer. With the projected sharpest rise in cancer incidences in low-middle income countries and the present demographical distribution of cancers in India, M.Ch. Head and Neck Surgery carries paramount significance in the thriving Indian healthcare.

Google map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/bmBZLqgiSVUeqtk38

Email: hns.kmc@manipal.edu

Phone number: +91 820 2922276

Majitha, C., Pillai, S., Shetty, S. et al. Malignant Nerve Sheath Tumour – A Case Report. Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-024-04591-1.

Sinha M, Pillai S, Shetty S, Devadas U. Role of absolute versus relative voice rest in postoperative management of benign vocal fold lesions. J Laryngol Otol. 2024 Apr 30:1-22. doi: 10.1017/S0022215124000835. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38686436.

Abdulkader RS, Ponnaiah M, Bhatnagar T, S D, Rozario AGA, K G, Mohan M, E M, Saravanakumar D, Moorthy A, Tyagi AK, Parmar BD, Devaraja K, Medikeri G, Ojah J, Srivastava K, K K, Das N, B N, Sharma P, Kumar Parida P, Kumar Saravanam P, Kulkarni P, S P, Patil S P, Kumar Bagla R, D R, S Melkundi R, S Satpute S, Narayanan S, Jahagirdar S, Dube S, Kumar Panigrahi S, Babu D S, Saini V, Singh Saxena R, Srivastava A, Chandra Baishya A, Garg A, Kumar Mishra A, Jyoti Talukdar A, Kankaria A, Karat A, Sundaresh Kumar A, Chug A, Vankundre A, Ramaswamy B, Mb B, R Jadav B, Dhiwakar M, Ghate G, Shah HV, Saha I, Sivapuram K, J Joshi K, Singh M, Chand Bairwa M, K D, K K, E M, Samagh N, Dinakaran N, Gupta N, Gupta N, M Nagarkar N, Solanki N, Kumar Panda P, Bachalli P, Shanbag R, Patil R, Kumar A R, Narayan Patil R, Thookkanaickenpalayam Vijayaraghavan R, Hanumantappa R, A R, Mandal SK, Kishve SP, Varghese Thomas S, Sarkar S, Thakur S, Patil S, Lakshmanan S, D Rao S, V S, Nayak T, Dixit UR, B U, Backiavathy V, Shenoy V, Hallur VK, Bhatnagar A, Murhekar MV. Baseline findings of a multicentric ambispective cohort study (2021-2022) among hospitalised mucormycosis patients in India. Mycology. 2024 Jan 17;15(1):70-84. doi: 10.1080/21501203.2023.2271928.

Varghese JJ, Aithal VU, Sharan K, et al. Comparison of Submental Surface Electromyography during Dry Swallow between Irradiated Head and Neck Cancer Survivors and Normal Individuals. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica : Official Organ of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP). 2024 Apr:1-13. DOI: 10.1159/000538732. PMID: 38599192.

Mittal M, Pillai S, Monappa V, Devaraja K, Majumdar KS. Desmoid fibromatosis-a diagnostic dilemma. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2024 Jun;281(6):3269-3278. doi: 10.1007/s00405-024-08558-4.

Devaraja K. Historical milestones in the evolution of the procedure of neck dissection. World J Otorhinolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2024; 1-12. doi:10.1002/wjo2.152.

Devaraja K, Aggarwal S, Pillai S, et alLarge atypical lipomatous tumour of the neck with mediastinal extension managed by transcervical excisionBMJ Case Reports CP 2024;17:e258292.

Devaraja, K., Sharma, P., Nayak, D. et al. Single Stage Deltopectoral Flap for Reconstruction of the Soft Tissue Defects of Neck. Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-024-04641-8.

Devaraja K, Pillai S, Valiathan M, Geetha V, Pujary K. E-cadherin expression pattern in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and its association with clinico-pathological predictors. The Egyptian Journal of Otolaryngology 2023;39:138. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43163-023-00503-2.

Thaduri A, Kappari SR, Majumdar KS, Panuganti A, Usmani SA, Singh V, et al. Long-term swallow outcomes and factors affecting swallowing dysfunction and quality of life among oral cancer patients: a prospective observational study. European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology 2023;280:5091–100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-023-08155-x.

Kumar R, Manchanda S, Hota A, Devaraja K, Thakur R, Sherif PM, et al. Ultrasound Characteristics of Metastatic Occult Cervical Lymph Nodes in Early Tongue Cancer. Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-023-03881-4.

Malapure SS, Oommen S, Bhushan S, Suresh S, Devaraja K. Association of Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio and Lymphocyte-to-Monocyte Ratio with Clinicopathological Features and Short-Term Outcome in Well-Differentiated Thyroid Cancer. Indian Journal of Nuclear Medicine 2023;38:313. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijnm.ijnm_35_23.

Majitha CS, Nayak DR, Shetty S, Devaraja K, Basheer JI. Distant metastasis at the time of presentation of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma- a retrospective chart review from a tertiary cancer care centre. The Journal of Laryngology & Otology 2023:1–12. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022215123002323.

Singh CA, Devaraja K, Kumar R. Recurrent Ameloblastoma: Long Term Outcomes with Free Fibular Bone Graft. Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2022;74:1773–9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-020-01790-4.

Devaraja K, Pujary K, Ramaswamy B, Nayak DR, Shenoy KR, Rao P. Role of Total Laryngopharyngoesophagectomy with Gastric Pull Up in the Management of Locally Advanced Hypopharyngeal Cancers. Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2022;74:127–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-020-01806-z.

Ravindra A, Nayak DR, Devaraja K, Matthew NM, Tiwari S. Functional Outcomes After Surgical Resection of Tongue Cancer; A Comparative Study Between Primary Closure, Secondary Intention Healing and Flap Reconstruction. Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery 2022;74:6296–306. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-021-03038-1.

Shetty S, Bhandary SK, Bhat V, Aroor R, Shetty J, Dattatreya T. Role of Otoacoustic Emission in Early Detection of Cisplatin Induced Ototoxicity. Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery 2022;74:164–9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-020-01933-7.

Prabhakar P, Rao N, Kairanna NV, Shetty S, Singh VK. Oncocytic Salivary Gland Tumours: Cytological Features and Diagnostic Pitfalls. Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery 2022;74:6112–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-021-02764-w.

Gupta N, Srinivas S, Harikumar A, Devaraja K, Nallapati VT, Saravu K. Deoxycholate amphotericin for management of mucormycosis: a retrospective cohort study from South India. Infezioni in Medicina 2022;30:432–9. https://doi.org/10.53854/liim-3003-12.

Devaraja K, Punja R, Kalthur SG, Pujary K. Unmapped landmarks around branches of the Superior Laryngeal Nerve: An exploratory cadaveric study. J Taibah Univ Med Sci 2021;16:328–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtumed.2021.01.004.

Devaraja K, Pujary K, Ramaswamy B, Nayak DR, Kumar N, Nayak D. Lymph node yield in treatment naïve cases of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: en bloc lymphadenectomy versus level-by-level dissection. J Laryngol Otol 2021;135:359–66. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022215121000621.

• Dr Devaraja K, Associate Professor, has been awarded the prestigious ‘UICC Technical Fellowship’ at the IARC - International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France in March 2024.
• Dr Kinjal Shankar Majumdar, Assistant Professor, has been awarded the prestigious American Society Clinical Oncology – Conquer Cancer Foundation ‘International Development and Education Award’ at Chicago, USA in May 2024.