External tissue expansion in head and neck reconstruction

Abstract

Tissue expansion has been of great value in plastic surgery especially in head and neck reconstruction. This study used external tissue expansion in 40 patients for head and neck reconstruction to avoid the complications associated with internal expansion. The study included 40 patients suffering from lesions in the head and neck, which needed excision and reconstruction. We designed external tissue expanders of different sizes and shapes to be suitable for head and neck application. The external expander was applied to the normal skin on one or both sides of the lesion and a negative pressure (-100 to -200 mbar) was created inside it. When the area of expanded tissue was deemed to be enough to cover the raw area after lesion excision, the expansion process was stopped and the operation was performed. The tissue expansion was achieved in all cases with minimal complications in the form of blisters and red spots in three cases, which were managed by stopping the expansion process until the blisters and spots had disappeared and then starting external expansion again. External tissue expansion technique is simple, easy, safe, associated with good results, and avoids the complications of classical expansion in head and neck reconstruction.