The nose is the most prominent area of the face, therefore susceptible to trauma and skin cancer. When small sized defect is in nasal tip, it results in disturbance of the facial harmony even if replantation, composite graft, skin graft or median forehead flap has been used for the reconstruction. So it is needed that the best method reconstruction is performed according to the degree of defect or deformity. And at the same time the physiology and anatomy of nose were clarified and its aesthetic subunits were employed.
How can we cover the about 3 cm sized nasal defect in nasal tip with cartilage exposure?
At first, we can think forehead island flap is most appropriate.
We performed 7 cases of the forehead island flap for reconstruction of the defect in nasal tip(4 cases: cancer, 3 cases: trauma) from March, 2001 to August, 2004.
This result was satisfactory in the point of texture, color, donor scar, and there were no complication such as wound disruption, infection, flap atrophy, and hematoma.
The advantages of forehead island flap are: 1) No injury of deep vessel and nerve, 2) control of shape and volume, 3) Short operation time, 4) primary closure of donor site, 5) one stage operation.
Also, forehead island flap can cover the defect in nose where skin graft and local flap can not cover. But, operator always must take care for flap congestion and donor site scar. We thought forehead island flap is one of the best option of reconstruction of nasal tip defect.
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