The Reliability and Versatility of Facial Artery Perforator-Based Nasolabial Flaps in The Reconstruction of Lip Defects

Recently, perforator flaps have become popular in many areas of reconstructive surgery. They provide design freedom and reduce donor-site morbidity. Many traditional local flaps including nasolabial flaps are based on the use of the axial facial artery with multiple perforators. Flaps based on one perforator of the facial artery have been introduced and are used more frequently because of their advantages over perforator flaps.

According to recent literatures, facial artery provides numerous cutaneous perforators, on which skin flaps can be islanded, with greater mobility and liability for reconstruction of small-to-moderate-sized intraoral and facial defects in one stage. .

Multiple perforators along the facial artery, a mean of 4 on each half of the face (range: 2-8), with a mean diameter of 0.94 mm (range: 0.53-1.36 mm) and maximum perforators between 20 and 60 mm from the origin along the length of the facial artery. This roughly corresponds to an area near the angle of the mouth around the nasolabial fold. A local skin flap based on such perforators can be islanded, with greater freedom in flap designing for reconstruction of small-to-moderate-sized intraoral and facial defects in one stage Ethical consideration This study will be approved by the ethics committee of Faculty of Medicine Sohag University. A written informed consent will be taken from every patient that will be included in this study and all patients will be informed about the nature & the aim of the study and the possibility of any complication.

Surgical technique:

After tumor ablation the facial artery perforator along the nasolabial fold was found and marked with a handheld Doppler probe. A perforator near the defect was selected to accomplish a sufficient arc of rotation without tension. The flap was designed to cover the defect based on one perforator and to hide the donor site in the nasolabial fold. An incision on one side of the flap was made to the subcutaneous tissue. Undermining of the flap until the perforators were identified. After the perforators were identified, the flap was redesigned and an incision was made circumferentially. Dissection of the pedicle was performed until tension-free transposition was done to cover the defect, and the distal perforators were sacrificed to help flap movement. For protection against shear forces, the investigators left a small cuff of subcutaneous fat around the perforator