Burned Unilateral Half-Cheek Resurfacing Techniques

Abstract

Postburn cheek deformities are a tragedy for patients and pose a great challenge to surgeons due to a limited number of well-matching donor sites. In cases of unilateral half-cheek deformity, the flap's skin should match the contralateral cheek and the residual skin of the deformed cheek. The skin of a distant flap does not match the facial skin and resembles a patch. The most suitable skin type is the neck's skin and residual cheek's skin transposed on the defect with special techniques. Seventy-six patients with unilateral cheek scars covering nearly half of cheek's surface (total cheek deformities are not included in this series) were personally operated. The deformities were divided into four types or forms: lower cheek, lateral, medial, and upper. The flaps and techniques were designed for each type. The cervical skin, residual cheek skin, and periauricular skin (most matching the cheek's skin) was used in form of different flaps, depending on the scar location on the cheek. The basic flap used was the cervical split flap which could include A) a thoracic adipose-cutaneous layer (cervico-thoracic flap); B) periauricular fasciocutaneous layer (cervico-periauricular and cervico-thoraco-periauricular flaps); C) residual healthy facial adipocutaneous layer (cervico-facial, cervico-facio-periauricular, and cervico-thoraco-facioperiauricular flaps). Cervical flap has axial circulation and is elevated without platysma; it is transposed on the cheek with some tension. The lower and lateral cheek deformities were eliminated most successfully with the cervico-thoraco-periauricular flap by one-stage procedure. Medial and upper cheek deformities were eliminated with the cervico-facio-thoraco-periauricular flap. The facial segment can be expanded (usually in cases of upper cheek reconstruction); in such cases, the thoracic region is not included in the flap (cervico-facio-periauricular flap). The cheeks were reconstructed in all patients without serious complications. The flap's skin matched the contralateral cheek and surrounding healthy skin; the donor site's damage was minimal; operation scars' line was maximally shortened. The use of cervical split flap in combination with thoracic, facial, and periauricular adipose-cutaneous layer opens, in author's opinion, a reliable and most successful way for postburn half-cheek resurfacing.