The primary prognostic factor related with head and neck malignancy is the presence of the lymph node metastases in the neck, and the neck dissection is the best treatment for such metastases.1 However, this procedure may cause extreme morbidity and different complications like seroma, chylous fistula, carotid sinus disorder, shoulder dysfunction and so forth. One of the most well–known complexity stemming for the neck dissection is shoulder dysfunction caused by the manipulation of the spinal accessory nerve which causes atrophy of the trapezius muscle primarily in procedures involving the posterior triangle neck dissection. The aim of this study was to assess spinal accessory nerve function after selective neck dissection (SND) and modified radical neck dissection (mRND) by assessing the nerve with electromyographic (EMG) examinations and nerve conduction test.