Journal of Clinical Practice · Published 2026-01-07 · DOI 10.17816/clinpract695986
BACKGROUND: Despite the visual accessibility, as of today, there are still persisting high rates of malignant tumors of the tongue newly diagnosed at later stages, which determines the complexity of treatment in this category of patients. The main variant of surgical treatment for locally advanced stages of tongue cancer remains the glossectomy with the resection of the oral cavity floor muscles, which results in the impairment of the swallowing and speaking functions. Due to that, still topical are the search and the development of new modern reconstructive methods to be used during the glossectomy for increasing the quality of life for the patient. AIM: To perform the clinical approbation of the method of tongue reconstruction after glossectomy using the re-vascularised dermal-muscle flap and the TiNi metal wire weft-knitted mesh. METHODS: The single-center prospective non-randomized research included 6 patients (3 men and 3 women aged from 38 to 56 years) with the locally advanced (Т3–Т4) stages of tongue cancer, which underwent the glossectomy with simultaneous reconstruction. The follow-up period ranged from 3 to 8 months. RESULTS: In all the operated patients, we managed to restore the shape of the tongue. Creating the anatomical shape of the tongue and of the oral cavity floor without the ptosis of the hyoid bone and with the used reconstructive flap has allowed for more comprehensively and at earlier times restoring the speaking and the swallowing functions. No inflammatory changes were reported in the area of the reconstruction and of the implantation of the titanium nickelide mesh in any of the patients. One case was reported as the local recurrence in 4 months after surgery. CONCLUSION: The developed reconstructive-surgical method allows for effectively and safely reconstructing the tongue and the oral cavity floor after glossectomy in oncology patients, to restore the swallowing and the speaking function without developing the significant postoperative complications.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
Read the article at the publisher →