The free anterolateral thigh flap is becoming one of the most preferred options for soft-tissue reconstruction. Between June of 1996 and August of 2000, 672 anterolateral thigh flaps were used in 660 patients at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. Four hundred eighty-four anterolateral thigh flaps were used for head and neck region recontruction in 475 patients, 58 flaps were used for upper extremity reconstruction in 58 patients, 121 flaps were used for lower extremity reconstruction in 119 patients, and nine flaps were used for trunk reconstruction in nine patients. Of the 672 flaps used in total, a majority (439) were musculocutaneous perforator flaps. Sixty-five were septocutaneous vessel flaps. Of these 504 flaps, 350 were fasciocutaneous and 154 were cutaneous flaps. Of the remaining 168 flaps, 95 were musculocutaneous flaps, 63 were chimeric flaps, and the remaining ten were composite musculocutaneous perforator flaps with the tensor fasciae latae. Total flap failure occurred in 12 patients (1.79 percent of the flaps) and partial failure occurred in 17 patients (2.53 percent of the flaps). Of the 12 flaps that failed completely, five were reconstructed with second anterolateral thigh flaps, four with pedicled flaps, one with a free radial forearm flap, one with skin grafting, and one with primary closure. Of the 17 flaps that failed partially, three were reconstructed with anterolateral thigh flaps, one with a free radial forearm flap, five with pedicled flaps, and eight with primary suture, skin grafting, and conservative methods. In this large series, a consistent anatomy of the main pedicle of the anterolateral thigh flap was observed. In cutaneous and fasciocutaneous flaps, the skin vessels (musculocutaneous perforators or septocutaneous vessels) were found and followed until they reached the main pedicle, regardless of the anatomic position. There were only six cases in this series in which no skin vessels were identified during the harvesting of cutaneous or fasciocutaneous anterolateral thigh flaps. In 87.1 percent of the cutaneous or fasciocutaneous flaps, the skin vessels were found to be musculocutaneous perforators; in 12.9 percent, they were found as septocutaneous vessels. The anterolateral thigh flap is a reliable flap that supplies a large area of skin. This flap can be harvested irrespective of whether the skin vessels are septocutaneous or musculocutaneous. It is a versatile soft-tissue flap in which thickness and volume can be adjusted for the extent of the defect, and it can replace most soft-tissue free flaps in most clinical situations.

Extensive composite defects of the oromandibular area are usually created after the surgical treatment of T3 and T4 cancers, requiring complex reconstructive plastic surgical procedures. The preferred treatment method for this type of defect is reconstruction with two free flaps. The use of the vascularized fibula osteoseptocutaneous flap for the bone and inner lining defect is well known and accepted. Among the flaps that can be used for the outer lining and soft-tissue reconstruction, the two most commonly used have been the forearm flap and the rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap. However, these flaps have some disadvantages that restrict their use for this purpose. The forearm flap is usually too thin to cover the fibular bone and reconstruction plate, and the rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap can cause a subclinical reduction in abdominal strength. Both radial forearm and rectus abdominis myocutaneous flaps are difficult to harvest during tumor excision. Because of these drawbacks, over the past several years the authors have preferred to use the anterolateral thigh flap for outer face, neck, and submandibular region reconstructions. From October of 1998 to June of 2000, 22 extensive composite mandibular defect reconstructions using the free anterolateral thigh flap, combined with the vascularized free fibula osteoseptocutaneous flap, were performed at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. Complete flap survival was 90.9 percent (40 of 44 flaps). Complete loss was seen in an anterolateral thigh flap, which was then reconstructed with a pectoralis major myocutaneous pedicled flap (2.3 percent). There were five venous problems: three in osteoseptocutaneous free fibula flaps, the other two in anterolateral thigh flaps; all were revised immediately. However, the skin islands of two osteoseptocutaneous free fibula flaps and one anterolateral thigh flap developed partial necrosis (6.8 percent). The other complications were compartment syndrome in the leg in one patient, external carotid artery rupture in one patient, three donor-site infections in two patients, three neck wound infections, and one myocardial insufficiency; all were treated properly. Thirteen patients underwent revision procedures 6 months after the first operation. These procedures included debulking of the flap or revision of the mouth angle or both. Trismus or intraoral contraction was noted in none of these patients. In conclusion, the free anterolateral thigh flap combined with the vascularized fibula osteoseptocutaneous flap seems to be a good choice in the reconstruction of the extensive composite defects of the oromandibular region aesthetically and functionally.

Reconstruction of composite defects of the mandible is a challenging problem. Although the use of an osteocutaneous free flap, alone or in combination with another soft-tissue free flap, is generally accepted to be optimal, the bony reconstruction is sometimes undervalued, especially when the cancer is advanced. In such situations, reconstruction is often performed with a reconstruction plate covered with a soft-tissue free flap. Between January of 1997 and July of 2000, 80 patients with composite or extensive composite oromandibular defects underwent treatment with a reconstruction plate and a soft-tissue free flap. All of the patients were male, and the ages of the patients at the time of treatment ranged from 32 to 78 years (mean, 51 years). Tumors were classified as stage IV in 56 patients (70 percent), whereas the remaining 24 patients (30 percent) had recurrent carcinomas. The titanium mandibular reconstruction system manufactured by Stryker (Freiburg, Germany) was used to bridge the mandibular defects. The soft-tissue free flaps used for wound and plate coverage were as follows: anterolateral thigh flap (n = 75), radial forearm flap (n = 3), transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap (n = 1), and tensor fasciae latae flap (n = 1). Five patients with recurrent carcinomas and 10 with stage IV carcinomas (18.75 percent) died 2 to 6 months after the operation and were excluded from the study. The remaining 65 patients were monitored for an average follow-up period of 22 months (range, 6 to 40 months). During that period, one or more complications occurred for 45 patients (69.2 percent). Plate exposure was the most common complication and was observed for 30 patients (46.15 percent). Twenty of the 65 patients (30.8 percent) required secondary salvage reconstruction with a fibula osteoseptocutaneous flap. The decision to perform a secondary salvage procedure was based on the general health of the patient, the extent of local disease, and the severity of the complications. Patients underwent salvage operations after an average of 11.5 months (range, 6 to 26 months). The major reasons for the second operation were as follows: reconstruction plate exposure (n = 12), soft-tissue deficiency and mandibular contour deformation of the lateral face (n = 7), intraoral contracture and lack of a gingivobuccal sulcus (n = 6), trismus (n = 4), and osteoradionecrosis of the mandible (n = 2). The total flap survival rate was 90 percent (18 of 20 free flaps). In two cases, the skin paddles of the fibula osteoseptocutaneous flaps exhibited partial failure and were revised with pedicled pectoralis major and deltopectoral flaps. The reconstruction plate and free soft-tissue flap procedure for the reconstruction of composite defects of the oromandibular region has many late complications, which eventually necessitate reconstruction of the mandible with an osteocutaneous free flap.

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Although postoperative radiotherapy has proved effective in improving local control and survival in patients with head and neck cancers, its complications, especially mandibular osteoradionecrosis, reduce the quality of life. Mandibular surgery before the radiotherapy adds an additional risk factor for osteoradionecrosis. This study reviews patients in Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, over a 10-year period, who underwent intraoral cancer resection followed by postoperative radiotherapy and thereafter developed osteoradionecrosis of the mandible. A total of 24 men and three women with a mean age of 49.9 years were identified and included in the study. In 10 cases, tumor resection was performed with a marginal mandibulectomy; in eight cases, tumor resection was performed after mandibular osteotomy; and in three cases, a segmental mandibulectomy was performed, and the defect was reconstructed with a fibula osteoseptocutaneous flap. In six cases, tumor excisions were performed without interfering with the mandibular continuity. Patients received postoperative external beam radiotherapy into the primary site and the neck, with a mean dose (+/-SD) of 5900 +/- 1300 cGy in an average of 35 fractions during an average of 6.5 weeks. The average elapsed time between the end of radiation therapy and clinical diagnosis of osteoradionecrosis of the mandible was 11.2 months (range, 2 to 36 months). The time elapse between the end of the radiation therapy and the diagnosis of osteoradionecrosis was influenced by initial treatment (Kruskal-Wallis test: n = 27, chi-square = 12.884, p < 0.005), and this period was shorter if the mandibular osteotomy or marginal mandibulectomy was performed (the two lowest mean ranks in the test). However, if the initial surgery resulted in a segmental mandibulectomy reconstructed with a fibula osteoseptocutaneous flap, onset of the osteoradionecrosis was relatively late (Kruskal-Wallis test: n = 21, chi-square = 7.731, p = 0.052). After resection of osteoradionecrotic bone and surrounding soft tissue, 22 patients underwent reconstructive procedures with a fibula osteoseptocutaneous flap, and five patients underwent reconstructive procedures with an inferior genicular artery osteoperiosteal cutaneous flap. One fibula osteoseptocutaneous flap showed total failure and another showed a 25 percent skin loss; both were revised with pedicled flaps. The skin paddle of an inferior genicular artery flap was replaced with an anterolateral thigh flap because of anatomic variation of the skin vessel. Once the diagnosis of osteoradionecrosis is established, replacement of the dead bone and surrounding tissue with a vascularized free bone flap is inevitable, and a composite osteocutaneous free flap is a good option.

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Most postmastectomy defects are reconstructed by use of lower abdominal-wall tissue either as a pedicled or free flap. However, there are some contraindications for using lower abdominal flaps in breast reconstruction, such as inadequate soft-tissue volume, previous abdominoplasty, lower paramedian or multiple abdominal scars, and plans for future pregnancy. In such situations, a gluteal flap has often been the second choice. However, the quality of the adipose tissue of gluteal flaps is inferior to that of lower abdominal flaps, the pedicle is short, and a two-team approach is not possible because creation of the gluteal flap requires that the patient's position be changed during the operation. In 2000, five cases of breast reconstructions were performed with anterolateral thigh flaps in the authors' institution. Two of them were secondary and three were immediate unilateral breast reconstructions. The mean weight of the specimen removed was 350 g in the three patients who underwent immediate reconstruction, and the mean weight of the entire anterolateral thigh flap was 410 g. Skin islands ranged in size from 4 x 8 cm to 7 x 22 cm, with the underlying fat pad ranging in size from 10 x 12 cm to 14 x 22 cm. The mean pedicle length was 11 cm (range, 7 to 15 cm). All flaps were completely successful, except for one that involved some fat necrosis. The quality of the skin and underlying fat and the pliability of the anterolateral thigh flap are much superior to those of gluteal flaps and are similar to those of lower abdominal flaps. In thin patients, more subcutaneous fat can be harvested by extending the flap under the skin. Use of a thigh flap allows a two-team approach with the patient in a supine position, and no change of patient position is required during the operation. However, the position of the scar may not be acceptable to some patients. Therefore, when an abdominal flap is unavailable or contraindicated, the creation of an anterolateral thigh flap for primary and secondary breast reconstruction is an alternative to the use of lower abdominal and gluteal tissues.