Jehad Al-Sukhun
Accepted Abstracts: Surgery Curr Res
The goals of the repair of the maxillofacial skeleton defects are to restore its three-dimensional shape, contour and function. Approaches vary from conventional management of maxillofacial defects, resurfacing the inner cheek with a skin graft and obturating the palate and sinus with a prosthesis, to the use of free tissue transfer to reconstruct the defect. However, these approaches do not frequently result in acceptable functional and cosmetic results. Moreover, tissue-engineered grafts seem to appear on the horizon. This technique provides the use of a combination of cells, engineering and materials and methods, and suitable biochemical and physio-chemical factors to repair and / or replace portions of or whole tissues (i.e., bone, cartilage, blood vessels, bladder, etc.) To date, the clinical application of tissue engineered grafts has been limited to few clinical situations. This paper reviews the literature and presents our experience, at several European University Hospitals, in reconstructing maxillofacial defects following ablative tumour surgery. The use of free vascularised flaps namely: 1) the deep circumflex iliac artery free (DCIA) flap and 2) Free fibular (FF) flap provided a reliable solution to reconstruct large defects following ablative surgery. This agrees with previously published reports. However, the correct choice of the surgical technique depends on the skill, experience and judgment of the managing team.
Jehad Al-Sukhun is a Britsih / Jordanian oral and maxillofacial surgeon with a Master?s degree in oral and maxillofacial surgery from the University of Manchester and a Ph.D. from the University of London in the United Kingdom. He has gained a number of fellowships and professional memberships in the United Kingdom & Ireland. He is an adjunct professor at Helsinki University Hospital, Finland and Keele University, UK. He is a Co-founder of Euro Oral LTD. He has gained significant clinical experience on maxillofacial implantology, oncology, trauma, orthognathic surgery, reconstructive and cosmetic plastic surgery.
