The use of submental local flap and radial free flap for the reconstruction of defects in patients with oral cancer

Introduction. Due to anatomical features, surgical treatment of oral cancer can lead to significant functional and esthetic defects. Main methods of reconstruction can be divided into groups of local and free flaps. There are lots of publications devoted to reconstruction of defects of oral cavity with the use of local and free flaps, but only few of them contain the comparison of these methods in the aspect of functional results. Materials and methods. A total of 58 patients with oral cancer were included in our study. All patients received surgical treatment with one-time reconstruction of defect. In 34 cases we used free radial flap and in 24 - submental local flap. Results. The use of submental flap has advantages in the intraoperative time, time of recovery, functional results, with the same locoregional control. Conclusions. We suggest submental local flap and radial free flap to be the method of choice in reconstruction of mucosa and soft tissues defects in patients with primary and recurrent oral cancer.