Role of microvascular reconstruction for head and neck cancers

Head and neck microvascular reconstruction represents a great challenge for Oral and Maxillofacial surgeons. This challenge is not only determined by the technical complexity of this type of surgery, but also by the patient’s quality in the context of an oncological process. Many times, patients who undergo microsurgical procedures for head and neck reconstruction present with large tumors and need extensive and mutilating surgeries. Therefore, the objective of head and neck reconstructive surgery is to restore the function and give back an identity to these patients.

As it is happening for other areas of medicine, progress and new technologies are transforming and improving head and neck reconstructive surgery. Coupler system and its doppler monitoring system, virtual surgical planning and the improvement in imaging techniques are examples of the impact of new technologies in the field of reconstructive surgery. It is our duty to keep up with changes and continue to evolve continuously, without forgetting what has been learned from the past.

The main aim of this focused issue is to analyze the state of the art of head and neck reconstruction by the help of highly recognized authors with a great expertise in this field. Thanks to their contributions it will be possible to learn their tricks and tips and how they handle difficult situations in head and neck reconstruction.

Moreover, the impact of new technologies such as VSP will be also analyzed.

I firmly believe that this focused issue will significantly contribute to spreading greater knowledges in this field and will help many surgeons around the world to offer the best type of treatment to their patients. All this will contribute to improving the quality of life of many patients around the world.

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the Editorial Office, Frontiers of Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at: https://fomm.amegroups.org/article/view/10.21037/fomm-2020-mr-06/coif). The series “Microvascular reconstruction of head and neck oncological defects—state of the art” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. PC served as the unpaid Guest Editor of the series and serves as an unpaid editorial board member of Frontiers of Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine from Apr 2020 to Mar 2022. The author has no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The author is accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Paolo Cariati