Neck Lift Cadaver Course: What Hands-On Dissection Adds and What to Expect

Most surgeons who operate on the neck learned its deep layers gradually, case by case. Videos and lectures shorten that curve, but they do not let you feel the difference between subplatysmal fat and the anterior digastric, or see how close the gland's deep surface lies to the duct and the lingual nerve. A cadaver dissection course exists to close that gap safely.

What dissection adds that lectures cannot

• Planes in three dimensions. The neck is compact; its layers are learned by entering and leaving them.
• Tissue feel. Fat, muscle and gland behave differently under the instruments.
• Sequence. Doing the steps in the order of the operation shows how each decision changes the next one.
• Risk-free repetition. Danger zones can be exposed deliberately, which is never done in a patient.

How All About The Neck is structured

Day 01 · Scientific Course at Dr. Mehmet Cömert Clinic, Istanbul: lectures, operative videos, case-based discussions and faculty panels on analysis, hyoid and skeletal support, surgical anatomy, deep fat, the digastric complex, choice of approach, the submandibular gland, platysma adaptation, adjunctive procedures, complications and the revision neck.

Day 02 · Hands-On Cadaver Dissection Workshop at Acıbadem CASE: faculty demonstrations followed by supervised, sequential participant dissection, in the order of the operation:

1. Laboratory orientation and surgical planning
2. Surface anatomy and preoperative marking
3. Access and superficial dissection
4. Entering the deep neck: subplatysmal exposure and fat contouring
5. Digastric, mylohyoid and hyoid relationships
6. The submandibular region: mapping and danger zones
7. Submandibular gland approach and partial reduction
8. Platysma adaptation and anterior neck reconstruction
9. Lateral neck release and integration with the lower face
10. Final contour assessment, skin redraping and closure
11. Danger-zone review, complication scenarios and specimen review

The proposed specimen format is fresh-frozen head and neck specimens, with participant numbers matched to specimen availability and faculty supervision.

The laboratory

Acıbadem CASE (Center of Advanced Simulation and Education) in Istanbul was founded in 2013, has trained more than 40,000 international physicians, and is accredited by NASCE and SSH. It has a dedicated dissection laboratory for cadaver based surgical training.

Who teaches

The course is hosted by Op. Dr. Mehmet Cömert and Op. Dr. Soner Karaali, both European board certified plastic surgeons (FEBOPRAS) based in Istanbul, with practices centred on facial rejuvenation and deep neck surgery. Dr. Cömert is co-author of a 2025 Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery series of 83 patients on submandibular gland excision in deep plane neck lift; see what that series reports.

Who it is for

Board certified or board eligible plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgeons who already operate on the face and neck. You do not need to be a deep plane surgeon, but you should have opened a neck before, so the two days are spent on the difficult planes rather than on orientation. It is not an anatomy primer.

Dates and applying

Edition I runs on 15 and 16 January 2027 in Istanbul and is limited to 10 surgeons. Applying costs nothing and places you under no obligation; both hosts review every application personally, and the fee is confirmed in writing before you commit to anything. Apply for a seat or read the full programme.