A novel route for placing free flap pedicle from a palatal defect

One of the better options available to repair a large palatal defect is by employing a free flap. Almost all the times such free flaps are plumbed to facial vessels. The greatest challenge in such cases is the placement of the pedicle from palatal shelf to recipient vessels because there is no direc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rajeev B. Ahuja, Pallab Chatterjee, Prabhat Shrivastava
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 2014-05-01
Series:Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.thieme-connect.de/DOI/DOI?10.4103/0970-0358.138965
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:One of the better options available to repair a large palatal defect is by employing a free flap. Almost all the times such free flaps are plumbed to facial vessels. The greatest challenge in such cases is the placement of the pedicle from palatal shelf to recipient vessels because there is no direct route available. As majority of large palatal fistulae are encountered in operated cleft palates there is a possibility of routing the pedicle through a cleft in the maxillary arch or via pyriform aperture. When such a possibility doesn’t exist the pedicle is routed behind the maxillary arch. We describe a novel technique of pedicle placement through a maxillary antrostomy, in this case report, where a large palatal fistula in a 16 year old boy was repaired employing a free radial artery forearm flap. The direct route provided by maxillary antrostomy is considered the most expeditious of all possibilities mentioned above.
ISSN:0970-0358
1998-376X