The reconstructive surgery of head and neck cancers

Thiry nine reconstructive surgeries were performed in 37 cases of head and neck cancers from January, 1989 to August, 1991 in our department. The best functional results were obtained on deglutition, swallowing and phonatin after intraoral and/or mesopharyngeal reconstruction using free radial forearm flaps. The free jejunal transposition procedure had the lowest complication rate. The rectus abdominus musculocutaneous free flap was used for nasal, paranasal reconstruction. Esthetics could be presereved by this reconstruction method due to mider postoperative atrophy and contraction. Eye sockets for the artificial eyes were made with eye conjunctiva in 3 canses of extended total maxillectomy with the orbital exenteration. The use of microvas-cular free flaps in this new plastic surgery resulted in the decrease of refusal of operations in maxillectomy canses.