Risk factors assessment in fibular free flap mandibular reconstruction

The fibular free flap (FFF) is the best choice method for mandibular reconstruction. However, the failure and the complications risk factors (RF) are not yet fully identified. This study aims to analyze these RF in order to improve the success rate.

This retrospective study includes all patients who benefited from a FFF mandibular reconstruction between the first of January, 2014 and the thirty-first of December, 2018 in the Department of Stomatology and Maxillofacial Surgery department of the CHU Saint-Pierre Hospital, Brussels, Belgium.

Thirty patients benefited from this intervention. The overall success rate was 90%. Majority of the patients were men (67%) (mean age: 52 years). The main associated co-morbidities were: alcohol (50%), tobacco consumption (67%) and previous radiotherapy (20%). The mean operative time was 9,5hours. The morbidities rates at the receiving site (RS) and the donor site (DS) were respectively 43% and 30%. Infection and dehiscence of the RS were the main complications. Statistical analysis identified RF for RS infections: atherosclerosis and operative time; RS dehiscence (previous cervical dissection and secondary reconstruction); flap necrosis (ischemia time, rate of infection at the recipient site, history of radiation therapy, alcohol consumption, National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance score (NNISS), and history of cervical dissection); and DS morbidities (NNISS and dehiscence rate at the DS in the early period).

The FFF mandibular reconstruction offers a significant success rate. Nevertheless, this study highlighted several failure and complications RF of the procedure. Previous neck dissection and radiotherapy, operative and the ischemia time, were RF associated with complication at the RS. Furthermore, the NNIS score and the dehiscence rate were also reported as RF for FFF necrosis.