 A linear skin incision was made in the skin fold line from just to the right of the midline to the leading edge of the right sternocleidomastoid muscle and taken sharply to platysma, which was dissected only in a subplatysmal manner bluntly, and with only blunt dissection at the prevertebral space where a localizing intraoperative x-ray was obtained, once self-retaining retractors were placed along the mesial edge of a cauterized longus colli muscle, to protect surrounding tissues throughout the remainder of the case. 
A linear skin incision was made in the skin fold line from just to the right of the midline to the leading edge of the right sternocleidomastoid muscle and taken sharply to platysma , which was dissected only in a subplatysmal manner bluntly , and with only blunt dissection at the prevertebral space where a localizing intraoperative x - ray was obtained , once self - retaining retractors were placed along the mesial edge of a cauterized longus colli muscle , to protect surrounding tissues throughout the remainder of the case .