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Effect of postoperative radiotherapy for free flap volume changing after tongue reconstruction

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Abstract

Objective

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of postoperative radiotherapy (RT) on temporal volume changes with a cutaneous free flap (CF) and a myocutaneous free flap (MCF).

Methods

The subjects were 24 men and 11 women (mean age, 50.5 ± 15.5 years) with tongue or floor of mouth cancer. Twenty-seven cases of CF and eight cases of MCF were selected. The flap volume change of the reconstructed tongue was calculated using computed tomography (CT) images taken immediately and at one year postoperatively using the DICOM image processing software OsiriX®.

Results

The reduction rate in flap volume at one year postoperatively was 82.0 ± 15% in CF without RT, 70.3 ± 26.1% in CF with RT, 88.5 ± 14.7% in MCF without RT, and 99.5 ± 16% in MCF with RT. The MCF volume was significantly higher compared to the CF volume. Although postoperative RT reduced the CF volume by 30%, there was only a slight reduction in the MCF volume.

Conclusions

We evaluated the effect of postoperative RT on volume reduction in 35 cases of the reconstructed tongue with CF and MCF using a computer-assisted volume rendering technique. In this study, the effect of RT on volume reduction was different between the CF and MCF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oral Oncology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Tokyo Dental College, 5-11-13, Sugano, Ichikawa-shi, Chiba, 272-8513, Japan

    Masae Yamazaki, Taiki Suzuki, Chiho Hiraga, Hirokazu Saitou & Takeshi Nomura

  2. Oral Cancer Center, Tokyo Dental College, 5-11-13, Sugano, Ichikawa-shi, Chiba, 272-8513, Japan

    Taiki Suzuki, Hirokazu Saitou, Satoru Ogane, Takeshi Nomura & Nobuo Takano

  3. Department of Oral Medicine, Hospital Dentistry, Tokyo Dental College, 5-11-13, Sugano, Ichikawa-shi, Chiba, 272-8513, Japan

    Yoshifumi Yoshida

  4. Department of Radiology, The Jikei University School of Medicine and University Hospital, 3-25-8, Nishi-Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 1058461, Japan

    Akira Baba

  5. Department of Plastic Surgery, Tokyo Dental College Ichikawa General Hospital, 5-11-13, Sugano, Ichikawa-shi, Chiba, 272-8513, Japan

    Takako Fujii & Ichiro Tanaka

  6. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Tokyo Dental College, 2-9-18, Kanda-Misakicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-0061, Japan

    Masayuki Takano

  7. Department of Oral Pathological Science and Surgery, Tokyo Dental College, 2-9-18, Kanda-Misakicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-0061, Japan

    Akira Katakura

Authors
  1. Masae Yamazaki
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  2. Taiki Suzuki
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  3. Chiho Hiraga
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  4. Yoshifumi Yoshida
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  5. Akira Baba
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  6. Hirokazu Saitou
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  7. Satoru Ogane
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  8. Takako Fujii
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  9. Masayuki Takano
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  10. Akira Katakura
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  11. Ichiro Tanaka
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  12. Takeshi Nomura
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  13. Nobuo Takano
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Taiki Suzuki.

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Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The others have no financial relationships to disclose.

Ethical approval

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008 (5) and was approved by the Ethics Review Board of Tokyo Dental College Ichikawa General Hospital (Approval Number: I16-35). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for inclusion in the study.

Human rights statement

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008.

Informed consent

Informed consent was waived due to the retrospective nature of this study.

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Yamazaki, M., Suzuki, T., Hiraga, C. et al. Effect of postoperative radiotherapy for free flap volume changing after tongue reconstruction. Oral Radiol 37, 518–523 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11282-020-00489-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11282-020-00489-0

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