New multilobe "accordion" flaps for three-dimensional reconstruction of wide, full-thickness defects in the oral floor

When reconstructing a wide, full-thickness intraoral defect, the following principles are necessary for active food transport and improved swallowing and speech. First, the flap should touch the palate and obliterate the oral cavity. Second, jaw or flap excursion should not be hindered by tethering of the flap in the neck. And third, all surfaces of the tongue and oral floor, and the dead space of the floor should be reconstructed. To accomplish these goals, two new designs, similar to an accordion, using an anterolateral thigh flap and a deep inferior epigastric perforator flap have been developed. The outlines of multilobe flaps create an accordion-type structure of the tongue and oral floor complex. The advantages of the new designs using anterior thigh or deep inferior epigastric perforator flaps are follows: First, three-dimensional intraoral reconstitution allows maximal movement postoperatively of the reconstructed tongue. Second, the donor sites are so far from the tongue that simultaneous flap elevation is possible for tumor resectioning. Third, even in obese patients, totally or partially thin flaps are available. And fourth, in most patients the donor defects can be closed directly.