Its very common for patients to have problems healing after going thru rads. Even areas a couple inches away from the radiation zone can have compromised healing capabilities. Ive been thru something similar with having a 6" open "tunnel" along the side of my face to behind my ear. This "tunnel" was about as big around as an uncooked piece of spaghetti. After weeks of going to a wound care specialist group and trying a great many different treatments without success I was down to my last option to get the area to heal. The "tunnel" kept getting infections. My doc had me get a picc line then start taking strong antibiotics 3x a day. The antibiotics would get delivered to my house from the hospital frozen and stay refrigerated. I also had to do hyperbaric oxyegn treatments (HBO). HBO is where a patient is in a glass cylinder breathing pressurized oxygen. My HBO treatments were almost 2 hours in the tank 5 days a week. It makes for a long day! The patient gets their blood pressure, temp, pulse, etc checked by the HBO tech every day prior to and immediately after each dive. Once a week the HBO doctor would do a check up to make sure everything was going smoothly for the HBO patient. Finally the tunnel began to show improvement and 8 long months later it was permanently closed. Of course, this is just the ordeal I went thru where others in similar situations may tell a completely different story.

When I went to the wound care specialists, I was impressed at all the different things they had available. The wound care team worked closely with an infectious disease doctor who was monitoring the infections I kept getting in the "tunnel"

Another idea would be if you havent already been treated at a comprehensive cancer center (CCC) to make an appointment with an ENT there. The CCCs are usually the best place to go for complex cases as they have the most experience with these types of things. CCCs use a team based approach, Im not sure if that would be necessary for your situation. Regardless, going to a CCC is definitely worth checking out. If you havent already gotten a second opinion I would advise to do so prior to having any further surgeries.

I hope you find these suggestions helpful. Best wishes!!!