Simplifying microvascular head and neck reconstruction: a rational approach to donor site selection. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • The purpose of this study was to review the authors' 13-year experience with free tissue transfer for head and neck oncology patients. This study was a retrospective review of 728 free flaps performed in 698 patients. Recipient sites were subdivided by region into the mandible (N = 253), mid face/orbit (N = 190), hypopharynx (N = 134), oral cavity (N = 104), skull base (N = 36), and scalp (N = 11). The overall free flap success rate was 98.6%. Seventy-nine flaps (10.9%) were reexplored for vascular compromise. Ten flaps (1.4%) were lost in their entirety. The overall complication rate was 17.5%. Four donor sites (forearm, fibula, rectus, and jejunum) were used for 92% of the patients. The results of the study confirm the efficacy of free tissue transfer in the reconstruction of oncological head and neck defects. In this series the free forearm, fibula, rectus, and jejunum flaps have become the workhorse donor sites for the vast majority of defects.

publication date

  • October 1, 2001

Research

keywords

  • Head and Neck Neoplasms
  • Plastic Surgery Procedures

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0034799326

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1097/00000637-200110000-00004

PubMed ID

  • 11601572

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 47

issue

  • 4