Digastric muscle sew-up procedure for the repair of the floor of the mouth following pull-through operation for oral cancers.
OBJECTIVE
We report the digastric muscle sew-up procedure for the repair of the floor of the mouth following the pull-through operation for advanced oral cancers.


METHODS
Eleven patients with advanced oral cancers (of the tongue in 8 cases and of the floor of the mouth in 3 cases) were retrospectively analyzed. One-third glossectomy and hemiglossectomy were performed in 4 patients each; the other 3 patients underwent tumor resection on the floor of the mouth. After neck dissection and tumor resection via the pull-through approach, the floor of the mouth was repaired simply by sewing the digastric muscle to the mandibular base. The surfaces of the transected musculature of the tongue and the floor of the mouth were left uncovered and exposed to the oral cavity.


RESULTS
The postoperative wound healing was fairly good in all of the patients. Neck infection or the formation of a fistula on the floor of the mouth was not seen. The patients started transoral ingestion by the 10th postoperative day. Temporary difficulty in swallowing occurred in all patients, but was totally alleviated within 1 month. Their clarity of speech recovered to a tolerable level.


CONCLUSIONS
We believe that the digastric muscle sew-up procedure is a simple, safe, and timesaving method for the repair of small to medium-sized defects of the floor of the mouth created by ablative surgery in patients with advanced oral cancers.
Suzuki
Hideaki
H
Dept of Otorhinolaryngology, School of Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-1 Iseigaoka, Yahatanishi-ku, Kitakyushu 807-8555, Japan.
Matsuura
Kazuto
K
Hiraki
Nobuaki
N
Kadokawa
Yohei
Y
Hashida
Koichi
K
Udaka
Tsuyoshi
T
Nagatani
Gunji
G
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009060:Mouth Floor / Q000601:surgery*; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000601:surgery*; D019647:Oral Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013536:Suture Techniques; D016896:Treatment Outcome