Lip defects due to tumor excision: apropos of 899 cases

Reconstructive surgery of the lips after resection of tumors requires a complete understanding of the anatomy of this region. Most lip cancers remain localized and grow slowly, with a propensity for superficial rather than vertical spread. From January 1983 to December of 2005, 899 patients underwent reconstructive surgery for skin tumors involving the lips. SCCs were the most frequent skin tumors on male patients whereas BCCs were most common on the female patients. The lower lip was the anatomic zone most frequently involved in our series. Preoperative evaluation of the patients was performed in all cases. In the last five-years, we have performed preoperative fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy of the tumor. The FNA sample was then examined by ThinPrep technique (Cytolyt; Cytyc, Co, Boxborough, MA, USA). In our series, from the 550 patients who had a five-year follow-up we observed 62 recurrences of the primary tumor. The five-year recurrence rate was 11.28%. The aim of this retrospective study is to report our experience in the treatment of lips tumors with selective combination of treatment modalities.