Sequential reconstruction for recurrent head and neck cancer: A 10-year experience

Most patients with head and neck cancer successfully undergo oncologic resection followed by free or local flap reconstruction, depending on the tumor's size and location. Despite effective curative resection and reconstruction, head and neck cancer patients still face a high risk of recurrence and the possibility of a second primary cancer. Moreover, surgeons hesitate to perform sequential reconstruction following curative resection for several reasons. Few large-scale studies on this subject are available. Therefore, we retrospectively evaluated the outcome of sequential head and neck reconstruction to determine the possible risks.

In total, 467 patients underwent head and neck reconstruction following cancer resection at our center from 2008 to 2017. Of these cases, we retrospectively reviewed the demographic and clinical features of 58 who had sequential head and neck reconstruction following resection of recurrent cancer.

Our study included 43 males (74.1%) and 15 females (25.9%). The mean age at the initial operation was 55.4±15.3 years, while the mean age at the most recent operation was 59.0±14.3 years. The interval between the first and second operations was 49.2±62.4 months. Twelve patients (20.7%) underwent surgery on the tongue, and 12 (20.7%) had procedures on the oropharynx. Thirty-four patients (58.6%) received a sequential free flap reconstruction, and 24 patients (41.4%) were treated using locoregional flaps. No cases of flap failure occurred.

Our findings suggest that patients who need additional operations with recurrent head and neck cancer could optimally benefit from sequential curative resections and reconstructions.