Sensory recovery of noninnervated free flap in oral and oropharyngeal reconstruction

The sensory recovery of noninnervated free flaps used in oral and oropharyngeal reconstruction is analysed retrospectively to evaluate the degree of sensory recovery in different free flaps; and to assess the influence of various clinical and surgical factors on the recovery. A total of 40 patients who underwent oral and oropharyngeal reconstruction with noninnervated radial forearm (24), jejunal (10) or gastro-omental (6) free flaps were studied for at least 12 months postoperatively. The modalities examined were light touch, sharp prick, hot and cold temperature and static two-point discrimination. All the modalities showed statistically significant recovery in all flaps (p<0.05). The degree of sensory recovery for each modality is highest in the radial forearm followed by gastro-omental and lastly jejunal flaps. The differences between radial forearm and gastro-omental/jejunal flaps are statistically significant (p<0.05) except for light touch. The differences between the later two groups of flaps did not show statistical significance (p>0.05). Sensory recovery for all modalities in all flaps was not dependent on sex, age, smoking, flap size, postoperative radiotherapy or follow-up period (p>0.05).