title: Mucosal defect repair with a polyglycolic acid sheet.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Early-stage oral or oropharyngeal carcinomas are often treated with surgical resection. Resulting wounds that are too large for primary closure can be covered with skin grafts or patches made from various biomaterials. Recently, polyglycolic acid sheets have been used for this purpose.
  
  
  METHODS
  We treated six patients with large wounds resulting from the resection of oral or oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma by grafting polyglycolic acid sheet patches. All patients were initially treated at the National Cancer Center East Hospital from March 2010 through July 2012. After mucosal resection, the wounds were covered with polyglycolic acid sheet patches attached with fibrin glue. Oral intake was started 4 days after surgery.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mucosal resection was the initial treatment in seven patients (five with oral squamous cell carcinoma and two with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma). The polyglycolic acid sheet patches became detached in two patients (on the day of surgery and on postoperative day 6), who then required large doses of analgesics. A patient who underwent tooth extraction also required large doses of analgesics. The other four patients required only small doses of analgesics. One patient had bleeding at the surgical site. No adverse effects were caused by the polyglycolic acid sheet patch or by fibrin glue.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study has shown that grafting of a polyglycolic acid sheet patch is effective and provides good pain control for patients with large, open wounds after mucosal resection of oral or oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. We plan to evaluate tissue contraction and oral intake after polyglycolic acid patch grafting.
authors.affiliation: Division of Head and Neck Surgery National Cancer Center Hospital East, 6-5-1 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8577, Japan. tashinoz@east.ncc.go.jp
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shinozaki
authors.forename: Ryuichi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ebihara
authors.forename: Masakazu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyazaki
authors.forename: Toshifumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tomioka
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D015718:Fibrin Tissue Adhesive; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000601:surgery*; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009959:Oropharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D011100:Polyglycolic Acid; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011379:Prognosis; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D058106:Wound Closure Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation; D014945:Wound Healing
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D015718:Fibrin Tissue Adhesive; D011100:Polyglycolic Acid