The miracle of tongue patching for cancer patients

This is considered a big challenge for doctors as they have to both ensure the safety of patients' lives and give them a normal life.

Tongue reconstruction after halving

Recently, doctors at the Department of Dentistry and Maxillofacial Surgery, E Hospital received and successfully operated on a 70-year-old female patient (Hanoi) with late-stage tongue cancer.

Tongue cancer patients are treated with microsurgery.

The tumor was more than 4cm in size, causing complete invasion from the oral mucosa to the entire muscle layer, blood vessels and system surrounding the tongue area.

To treat the patient, the doctors chose the most optimal option of removing the entire tumor and related areas, then reshaping the patient's tongue with a microsurgical flap.

Dr. Nguyen Hong Nhung, Department of Dentistry, E Hospital, said that after removing the tumor, a large defect was left in the tongue and the pelvic floor of the mouth. This defect needed to be reconstructed with a tissue flap with microsurgical vascularization.

Next, the process of shaping the patient's tongue and mouth floor, due to the widespread nature of the cancer and the removal of half of the tongue, cannot be shaped with a local flap.

Therefore, the surgical team chose to use a skin flap from the right arm to reshape the tongue. After surgery, the patient can stop the pain, practice swallowing, practice speaking and return to normal life.

What is microsurgery?

Dr. Nguyen Tan Van, Deputy Head of the Department of Dentistry, E Hospital, shared: Microsurgery is one of the most advanced techniques in reconstructing maxillofacial defects in the world as well as in Vietnam today.

During microsurgery, surgeons use specialized microscopes combined with high-precision medical instruments to repair and preserve even the smallest structures in the body.

Accordingly, doctors will bring flaps from a distance with vascular pedicles to the defect area, then connect blood vessels (arteries, veins), nerves... with a diameter of only a few mm, helping to restore the defect for the patient.

According to Dr. Van, in the past, many maxillofacial injuries were difficult to treat conservatively when surgery was required, but now with advances in microsurgery, new treatment quality has been brought.

According to Dr. Van, in cases of patients with maxillofacial cancer, microsurgery is considered the "gold standard" of treatment.

In surgery, completely removing and preventing the growth of cancerous tumors is very important to ensure the patient's life.

However, when completely removing the tumor, it will leave a large facial defect, and furthermore, it will affect the patient's ability to eat, speak, breathe and look.

Restore both function and aesthetics

To ensure the patient's functions, doctors must create a cover with free skin and bone flaps taken from other areas of the body such as: legs, arms, abdomen, back... to regenerate and restore the damaged areas, helping the patient recover both function and aesthetics.

Care of patients with tongue patch surgery after surgery.

"Currently, we have implemented microsurgical flap surgery techniques to treat many cases of diseases related to maxillofacial cancer, especially oral cancer.

The technique has many good results, bringing high treatment efficiency to cancer patients, while helping to restore function, anatomy, aesthetics as well as psychology, improving the quality of life for patients," Dr. Nhung shared more.

However, Dr. Van emphasized: This is a difficult technique, requiring a team of highly qualified surgeons, who must be highly focused and have almost absolute precision during surgery.

To perform microsurgery, surgeons must operate on blood vessels and nerves with very small tissues, which cannot be done with the naked eye but must use a magnifying microscope.

The entire process requires surgeons to be very meticulous and error-free. Therefore, microsurgery usually lasts from 8-10 hours, and can even last up to nearly 20 hours.

According to medical experts, microsurgery techniques help minimize damage to surrounding tissues, while improving the accuracy of repairs, so patients will have a faster recovery time and reduce post-operative complications.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/ky-cong-va-luoi-cho-benh-nhan-ung-thu-192240930231325603.htm