Reconstruction of Thin and Pliable Oral Mucosa After Wide Excision of Oral Cancer Using a Trimmed Anterolateral Thigh Free Flap as an Adipofascial Flap

Abstract

A 21-year-old female patient underwent wide excision of the buccal mucosa and tongue as well as selective neck dissection due to squamous cell carcinoma on the left side of the tongue. She had a severe limitation in opening her mouth, owing to fibrosis of the mucosa and scar contracture after adjuvant radiation therapy. Reconstruction of the oral mucosa and tongue defect was performed after removal of the scar to improve mouth opening. An anterolateral thigh (ALT) flap was used, trimmed to an adipofascial flap for the reconstruction of the thin and pliable oral mucosa and tongue. The maximum mouth opening improved to 40 mm intraoperatively and was 30 mm after surgery. The adipofascial ALT flap had excellent viability and presented neomucosa after secondary healing. An adipofascial flap obtained by trimming an ALT flap could be a reliable option for the reconstruction of thin and pliable oral mucosa after wide excision of oral cancer.

Effect of Different Repair and Reconstruction Methods Combined with Psychological Intervention on Quality of Life and Negative Emotion in Patients with Oral Cancer

“…There are more and more patients with surgical treatment. Although radical resection of oral cancer is advantageous in many aspects, it will damage the maxillofacial tissue of patients and affect the normal func-tion and appearance, and some patients will suffer from a huge blow, resulting in more obvious mania, depression, and other negative emotions and greatly reducing their quality of life [1][2][3]. Nowadays, with the continuous optimization of relevant medical technology, oral cancer patients generally carry out repair and reconstruction in radical resection to improve their maxillofacial function.…”

Study of tissue engineered vascularised oral mucosa-like structures based on ACVM-0.25% HLC-I scaffold in vitro and in vivo

“…Therefore, the study of restoring functional oral mucosa is a hot spot in clinical research. At present, the main repair methods are autologous free flap and myofascial membrane transplantation [3,4], but this repair method is at the expense of normal tissues, which will cause secondary trauma and bring great pain to patients. Recent studies have shown that tissue-engineered oral mucosa (TEOM) [2,5] is an ideal reconstruction material, which opens up a new approach to repair oral mucosal soft tissue defects.…”