[Clinical value of certain slice groups in reconstruction of head and neck defects]

Post surgical and posttraumatic defects of head and neck, until couple of years ago, was treated with the surgical procedures which did not produced satisfactory results in terms of reconstruction of lost function and esthetic appearance. Only during last couple of years these defects are treated with the more aggressive methods than before. Esthetic appearance, functions of speech and swallowing became important features in the post surgical evaluation of the reconstruction value.

This research involved 40 patients with head and neck defects in the time period from 1998 until 2000, surgically treated at the "Department for maxilla and facial surgery of the Cantonal Hospital in Zenica". In all cases there was a significant deficit in speech and swallowing functions, with anatomic deformations, which were solved using the four groups of slices: local, free transplants, bounded and free (micro vascular) composites.

Results indicated on significant difference of the post surgical functional results between simple procedures (smaller defects) and the complex surgeries. In that sense there was advantage of bounded or free composites, while in treatment of esthetic part situation was different, sometimes the slice of choice was the local slice of skin.

Finally we reach the conclusion that the best results are sometimes produced with the simplest surgical procedures. With the complex surgeries (free tissue composites) we can restore function and esthetic appearance within single procedure, but their lacks are once again in the complexity of the surgical procedure and its duration.