Objective Our objective was to determine the proportion of patients disease free in the neck, with the primary site controlled, who have been treated with a selective neck dissection (SND) for squamous cell carcinoma (SCCa) of the upper aerodigestive tract, and who had cervical metastasis less than 3 cm.

Study Design A cohort of patients who fit the inclusion/exclusion criteria was identified retrospectively. Then all surviving patients were followed for a minimum of 2 years.

Methods A group of 52 patients who had 58 selective neck dissections for cervical metastases from SCCa of the upper aerodigestive tract were identified. The mean age was 56 years (range, 20–85 y), there were 40 males and 12 females, and mean follow‐up was 24.5 months (range, 1–64 mo). Twenty‐six patients had clinically negative (cN₀) neck examinations and 26 had clinically positive neck examinations. Postoperative radiation was given for extracapsular spread, greater than 2 positive nodes, T₃, T₄, or recurrent disease if the patient had not received radiation before surgery. These radiation criteria excluded 18 patients from postoperative radiation treatment.

Results Kaplan‐Meier survival analysis showed that the regional control rate with the primary site controlled was 0.94. Six patients developed recurrent neck disease. Three of these 6 patients were surgically salvaged. Four recurrences were in the dissected field and 2 were out of the dissected field (level V).

Conclusions With similar indications for radiation therapy, the regional control rate in this cohort is comparable to control rates obtained with modified radical neck dissection.