Local Flaps In Reconstruction Of Facial Defects

In reconstructing facial defects plastic surgeons aim to use tissues which are most similar to the original in cosmetic properties with minimal donor site damage.Facial defects that need reconstruction may be the result of trauma, resection of facial neoplasms, post-burn deformity or congenital anomalies.There are many options for reconstruction of full thickness facial defects. These include primary closure, skin grafts, local and regional flaps and free tissue transfer.Local skin flaps provide an excellent skin color and texture matchs and their donor sites can be closed primarily with little morbidity in the majority of cases.The aim of this work is to evaluate the use of local facial flaps in reconstruction of facial defects as regards skin color and texture match.In this work (25) patients with facial defects were divided into (5) groups according to the site of the defects as follows :Group(1): which included (7) patients with cheek defects.Group(2): which included (5) patients with periorbital defectsGroup (3): which included (4) patients with perioral defects.Group (4): which included (6) patients with nasal defects.Group (5): which included (3) patients with forehead defects.The results of our study were analyzed as regards, age, sex, site of the defect, cause of the facial defects, type of local flaps used, histopathological features of the excised neoplasms in neoplastic cases and incidence of postoperative complications . Evaluation of late outcome according to cosmetic appearance, patient’s satisfaction and functional outcome.Most of the defects were in the cheek region .The mean age of the patients was (45) years.Most of our cases were males .The most common cause of facial defects was the resection of neoplastic lesions of the face.The most commonly used local flap in our study was the rotational flap.Most of the excised neoplasms in our study were basal cell carcinomas.The postoperative complications were minor and all flaps survived without ischaemia or gangrene.The overall aesthetic results were good in (80%) of cases and acceptable in (20%) of cases and the functional results were satisfactory in all cases .