title: Pedicle Tongue Flap for Palatal Fistula Closure.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Palatal fistulae are common sequels that appear in patients after surgical procedures in the palate. Considering the difficulty to achieve an effective treatment, there are many techniques to surgically manage fistulae, that is, the pedicle tongue flap.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Being so, the main goal of this paper is to report cases of patients with palatal fistulae, from different etiologies, treated with anterior pedicle tongue flap.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eleven patients, 8 male and 3 female, mean age of 32 years old with palatal fistulae surgically treated with anterior dorsal tongue flaps. No flap was completely lost. There was 1 partial loss and 1 residual buconasal communication. The most common complaints of the patients were difficulty to perform oral hygiene and mild pain.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The use of anterior pedicle tongue flap for closing palatal fistulae demonstrates to be a safe procedure with high success rates (81% in this paper) when correctly indicated.
authors.affiliation: *Department of Stomatology, Universidade Federal do Paraná†Staff Oral Maxillofacial Surgery, Centro de Atendimento Integral ao Fissurado Lábio Palatal‡Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná§Departament of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Erasto Gaertner Hospital, Curitiba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Guilherme
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Strujak
authors.forename: Tuanny Carvalho de Lima do
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Nascimento
authors.forename: Cassia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Biron
authors.forename: Maurício
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Romanowski
authors.forename: Antonio Adilson Soares de
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Lima
authors.forename: João Luiz
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Carlini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005402:Fistula / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009668:Nose Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D016155:Oral Fistula / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D009910:Oral Hygiene; D010146:Pain; D012225:Rhinoplasty / Q000009:adverse effects; D013524:Surgical Flaps / Q000601:surgery*; D014059:Tongue / Q000637:transplantation*; D016896:Treatment Outcome