Purpose: Total or subtotal glossectomy following the resection of intraoral tumors causes significant morbidity. However, which reconstructive technique is the most successful remains controversial.
Patients and methods: After approval by the Ethics Committee, charts were reviewed retrospectively for patients treated at the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department, University Hospital La Paz (Madrid, Spain), during a 3-year period (2005-2008). All were reconstructed with a deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEAP) flap after total glossectomy. Data collected included affiliation data, extent of extirpation, type of reconstruction, and surgical outcome, including donor-site morbidity, complications, and functional results.
Results: Seven patients (5 men, 71.4%; 2 women, 28.6%) with primary squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue underwent total glossectomy and simultaneous microsurgical reconstruction with a DIEAP flap. In all cases, the flap was harvested with a fusiform shape oriented craniocaudally and limited to zone 1. The average size of the flap was 16.7 × 7.2 cm. Functional outcome related to swallowing was poor; 57.1% of the patients required a permanent gastrostomy. Speech was considered intelligible in 85.7% of cases by 2 independent observers. The surgical outcome was uneventful in most of the cases, with only 1 case of local dehiscence at the mouth floor. None of the cases developed abdominal wall dehiscence or an abdominal hernia at mid- or long-term follow-up.
Conclusions: The DIEAP flap is a reliable alternative for tongue reconstruction. It provides a large volume of soft tissue for transfer and is predictable and stable over time with low donor-site morbidity.
Copyright © 2012 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.