New Surgical Procedures Removes Cancer and Rebuilds the Face and Jaw
Dr. Ghanem will be presenting information at the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery annual meeting in Washington D.C. about a new procedure that was used to safely remove a facial tumor from a young man’s jaw and then also rebuild the jaw and facial structures so that the young man could continue to eat and speak. The procedure, which took 20 hours, was completed successfully at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan.
Surgeons in the Head and Neck Oncology and Microvascular Surgery Division at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit worked to develop the new procedure to treat bone tumors of the jaw bone affecting the lower third of the face and the upper part of the neck. These tumors, called osteosarcoma, are typically found in the long bones of the leg and rarely spread to other areas of the body. But the unfortunate patient in question developed the disease in his mandible, or lower jaw as well as the lower lip, chin, neck skin, cheeks, and tongue and other treatment approaches were not able to produce positive results. The osteosarcoma originally developed in the patient’s femur bone and then spread to his jaw bone.
Osteosarcoma is the 8th most common type of childhood cancer and the most common form of bone cancer affecting about 5 million patients under the age of 20 each year. The cancer can spread to other skeletal bones or sometimes to the lungs or other soft tissues. The disease is more likely to afflict boys than girls and typically becomes apparent when children experience a growth spurt during their teen years. Osteosarcomas seem to arise from random DNA mutations in osteoblasts during times when kids are experiencing a lot of skeletal growth. Though there is no way to prevent this type of cancer from developing, children who receive a proper diagnosis and appropriate treatment typically do recover from the disease.
To effectively treat the osteosarcoma patient with the afflicted jaw bone, doctors had to come up with a creative approach that would allow them to safely remove the tumor and then rebuild a fully functional face. Coming up with a technique to remove the tumor and then create facial structures that would allow the patient to eat and speak was not easy. The patient, a 21 year old male African American had a history of osteosarcoma and first developed the disease in his right leg and then about 3 years later, it spread to his jaw. The tumor grew to about 10 pounds in size, made up of soft tissues and bone, which interfered with his ability to speak and eat. He required a feeding tube before the procedure.
After the surgical procedure to remove the tumor and repair the facial structures, the patient was able to speak and eat without assistance within 3 months. Before coming to the Henry Ford Hospital, the patient had tried radiation, chemotherapy, crysurgery, and mandibular resection without success. The doctors were able to achieve success by surgically removing the tumor, the mandible, mucous membranes on the inside of the cheeks, the lower lip, and the tongue and then rebuilding the structures using microvascular free flaps of skin and muscle tissue from the fibula of the patient’s left leg and scapula of his body.
New Surgical Procedures Removes Cancer and Rebuilds the Face and Jaw is a post from: Plastic Surgery News