Summary
Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the temporal bone is a rare, aggressive and highly
malignant tumour that requires specialised, multidisciplinary surgery for its treatment.
Reconstruction of the defect is as crucial as the tumour ablation in terms of mortality
and postoperative morbidity.
Methods
The experience of the East Anglian Skull Base Surgery Service from 1982 to 2004 in
managing 42 consecutive patients (22 females; age range 37–80 years) undergoing extended
and lateral temporal bone resection for SCC is presented.
Results
The overall 5-year survival was 31.0% (median follow up: 97 months) when both curative
and palliative procedures were included. On multivariate analysis, the favourable
prognostic factors were male sex, well-differentiated tumours and stage N0 neck. The reconstructions in 38 patients were analysed. The majority (24/38) had
free tissue transfer reconstructions and most of these were radial forearm free flaps.
Later in the series, other free flap types such as anterolateral thigh flaps and lateral
arm flaps were employed. Pedicled myocutaneous flaps and local flaps were also used.
Conclusions
This paper analyses the outcomes of the various reconstructions and discusses the
evolution of their care in our unit. The information obtained from the review of our
data is extrapolated to offer guidance on the choice of reconstructive option in these
patients.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 02, 2007
Accepted:
November 6,
2006
Received:
May 3,
2006
Footnotes
☆Presented at the British Association of Plastic Surgeons Winter Meeting, London, December 2005.
Identification
Copyright
© 2007 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
