Repair lower face defect with an expanded flap from submental and submandibular region in children

Scar and defect in the lower face always lead to serious facial deformity and asymmetry. Conventional method such as skin graft or free flap is hard to obtain a satisfactory outcome. In this article, we present a skin expanding technique. An expanded flap was designed to repair the lower face scar or defect on submental and submandibular regions. A tissue expander was implanted into the region and inflated for 2 to 3 months. After removing the expander, we harvested the flap as a rotation flap to repair the lower facial defect. The longest follow-up period was 3 years. All of the flaps were well matched to the surrounding skin with respect to color, texture, and thickness. An expanded flap on submental and submandibular regions is suitable to repair a lower face defect.