End-to-Side Versus End-to-End Venous Anastomosis Using Couplers in Mandibular Reconstruction: A Comparative Study.

Abstract

This study compares the advantages of end-to-side technique over end-to-end technique for venous anastomosis using couplers. Patients were divided into group I and group II based on end-to-side and end-to-end techniques, respectively. Intraoperative anastomotic time, flap ischemic time, and postoperatively flap vitality were the parameters evaluated. Thirty-eight patients were randomly allocated to two groups with 19 patients in each group. The mean anastomotic time with standard deviation in group I was 391.84 ± 49.052s and in group II was354.47 ± 46.365s with p value 0.021. The mean flap ischemic time with standard deviation in group I was 180.68 ± 35.773min and in group II was 161.21 ± 32.418min with p value 0.087. All the flaps in group I were vital, whereas 78.9% of flap vitality was observed in group II with p value 0.105. Based on this study, end-to-side venous anastomosis using couplers is a better technique over end-to-end venous anastomosis.