Quality of Life After Oral Cancer Resection and Free Flap Reconstruction

Abstract

This study focused on quality of life for patients in northeast China who underwent oral cancer resection directly before flap reconstruction. In addition, this study compared differences among the radial forearm free flap (RFFF), ulnar forearm free flap (UFFF), and anterolateral thigh flap (ALTF) for defect reconstruction. To assess patients' quality of life, the University of Washington Quality of Life and 14-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) questionnaires were completed 6months after reconstruction. The flap size of the ALTF group was much larger than that of the UFFF and RFFF groups. The appearance score of the ALTF group was markedly higher than that of the UFFF and RFFF groups, whereas these groups had a much higher swallowing score than the ALTF group. Furthermore, the ALTF group had much lower social disability OHIP-14 scores than the RFFF group. The results indicate that all 3 reconstruction methods are similar, but that the ALTF has a slight advantage over the UFFF and RFFF.