Clinical observation of the application of submental artery island flap in postoperative defect repair in elderly patients with oral cancer
SUN Qing-yan
WANG Xin-yuan
MU Xiao-dan
LIU Tian-chi
YAN Meng-qi
HU Min
LIU Hua-wei
Abstract：Objective To observe the clinical effect and safety of submental-artery island flap in the repair of postoperative defect in elderly patients with oral cancer. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on 29 elderly patients with oral cancer without definite cervical lymph node metastasis admitted to the oral surgery Department of PLA General Hospital from June 2017 to June 2022. Submental artery island flap was used to repair oral soft tissue defects during surgery. The basic data,tumor site,tumor size,flap size,flap preparation time,length of hospital stay,and surgical effect were summarized. According to postoperative pathological diagnosis,the patients were divided into the lymph node non-metastasis group (16 patients) and the cervical region Ⅰ lymph nodes metastasis group (13 patients). The postoperative complications of the two groups were dividedly analyzed according to the follow-up statistics. Results Both the group without cervical region Ⅰ lymph node metastasis and the group with cervical region Ⅰ lymph node metastasis were followed up for 2-7 years. There was no significant difference in mean age,tumor size,flap area,operation time and hospital stay between the two groups (P>0.05). The flap healed in 29 cases. There was no significant difference in tumor recurrence (18.8％ vs 23.1％,P=0.630) and postoperative complications (0.0％ vs 23.1％,P=0.776) between the group without cervical region Ⅰ lymph node metastasis and the group with cervical region Ⅰ lymph node metastasis. Conclusion For middle and advanced oral cancer without definite cervical lymph node metastasis before surgery,a submental artery island flap is feasible to repair the postoperative defect. The application of this flap will not increase the risk of short-term tumor recurrence,especially for elderly patients with oral cancer.
Keywords：The elderSubmental artery island flapRepair of maxillofacial defectCervical region Ⅰ lymph node metastasisOral carcinoma
Publication Date：2024-09-20
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 275-279,295 )