There are various defects caused by trauma or resection of maignant tumor in the orofacial region, which can be reconstructed with various regional and pararegional flaps. Among these defects, it is very difficult to reconstruct palatal and
midfacial
defects after maxillectomy and patients have problems in speaking and swallowing of food. Therefore it is very important for surgeons to reconstruct these defects functionally and esthetically and to retun the patients to the normal social
activity.
These defects are usually obturated with prosthodontic appliances to assist the phonation and swallowing. But nowadays surgical reconstruction by various flaps was considered and performed for better rehabilitation. For this purpose the forehead
flap,
the nasolabial flap, the tongue flap, the sternocleidomastoideous flap, the temporal flap, the latissimus dorsi flap, the scapular flap etc. are used.
We reconstructed small-sized plalatal defects with tongue flap medium-sized palatal and maxillary defects after maxillectomy with temporal myofascial flap and large midfacial defects including eyeball exenteration with latissimus dorsi
myocutaneous
flaps.
Here we are to report 5 cases of these flaps used for the reconstruciton of palatal and midfacial defects and consider the versatility, reliability and limitation in use of these flaps.
|