Microvascular flap surgery (free tissue transfer) is a technique of transferring a patient’s own tissue from one region of the body to another for purposes of reconstructing defects of the head and neck as a result of tumors, facial trauma or infections
The surgeon is able to “auto-transplant” any tissue type including, bone muscle and skin.
This type of surgery is often very lengthy and labor intensive due to the need for suturing of blood vessels under an operating microscope
Success rates for microvascular surgery are excellent but require close monitoring of the flap blood flow via special Doppler probes (measure the “heartbeat” of the flap) during the post-operative hospitalization
Common donor sites selected for head and neck reconstruction include:
