Defining secure surgical bone margins in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas: The diagnostic impact of intraoperative cytological assessment of bone resection margins compared with preoperative imaging.

•Disease management of head and neck carcinomas still faces unsolved problems.•Margin control remains one of the major influences on patient outcome.•Imaging lacks accuracy to determine adequate margins in bone-infiltrating carcinomas.•Cytological assessment provides intraoperative information of bone margin status.•Diagnostic value of imaging vs intraoperative cytology of bone margins is presented.