Speech and swallowing following radial forearm flap reconstruction of major soft palate defects
Section snippets
Patients and methods
Patients who had undergone soft palate resection and free flap reconstruction during the 5-year period between January 1995 and January 2000 were identified. The patients were included in the study if the extent of resection of the soft palate was at least 50% and they were alive and free of disease at the time of review. The patient records were reviewed for operation details and then the patients themselves reviewed for evaluation of function.
Results
There were two peri-operative complications. One patient returned to theatre for successful revision of the arterial anastomosis and one patient had a neck wound dehiscence, which healed with dressings alone. One patient did not tolerate the post-operative radiotherapy and received a limited dose of 26 Grey (Gy). The other three patients treated with post-operative radiotherapy received a full dose of 60 Gy within 3 months of surgery.
All eight patients who identified were reviewed. The average
Discussion
Reconstruction of the soft palate should aim to restore speech and swallowing. For significant palatal defects, the pliability and thinness of the radial forearm flap are advantageous in matching the three-dimensional conformation of the defect and it has been a popular choice in soft palate reconstruction.9, 10, 13, 14, 15 The technique of inset of the forearm flap has varied in published reports. In this series, the forearm flaps were inset aiming to restore the normal palatal anatomy. The
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Cited by (0)
☆Paper presented at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Annual Scientific Congress, May 2000 and the annual meeting of the Australia and New Zealand Head and Neck Society, November 2001.