Multi-Factorial Functional Analysis of the Patients with Reconstruction for Oral Carcinoma

This paper is to evaluate postoperative function which has undergone reconstruction with vascularized or pedicled flaps for the treatment of oral carcinomas. The subjects consisted of 22 cases of 17 male and 5 female patients, and their mean age was 55 years. The sites of reconstruction were the tongue in 12 cases, mandible in 10 cases. The reconstruction was performed using deltopectoral (DP) flaps in 6 cases, pectoralis major musculo cutaneous (PMMC) flaps in 3 cases, DP flap + PMMC flap in one case, forearm (FA) flaps in 8 cases and peroneal (P) flaps with fibula in 4 cases. Postoperative masticatory, speech, swallowing functions and facial appearance were evaluated by Multi-factorial analysis. All functional results seem to be related to the type of resection. By multi-factorial analysis, the type of mandibular resection, flap area, and anterior resection were related to the masticatory or speech function in tongue resection. In mandibular resection, masticatory function was subjected to age; speech function was subjected to type of mandibular resection and plate reconstruction. The facial appearance was subjected to flap area. These results suggested that postoperative function was not related to only one factor, but using the classification of each defect site as one of the factor of multi-factorial analysis was useful.