Tongue reconstruction: Concepts and practice

Total or subtotal tongue resection results in the potential for severe speech and swallowing disruption and life‐threatening aspiration. This report documents the development of a new design for latissimus dorsi flaps used in tongue reconstruction. In order to create a contractile muscle sling which will raise the neotongue toward the palate for speech and swallowing, the flap is harvested with muscle fibers oriented transverse to its long, skin component axis. The flap is then transferred to the oral and oropharyngeal defect and sutured at the level of the mandibular angle to the remaining muscles of mastication. Conventional microvascular anastomosis for free flaps is followed by end‐to‐end reanastomosis of the hypoglossal nerve stump to the nerve to latissimus dorsi. The skin component is set into the floor of mouth with a curved wedge resected anteriorly, raising a mound to assist with articulation. Fourteen such reconstructions have been performed on patients undergoing glossectomy for cancer. If not invaded by cancer, the glottic larynx was preserved, and the decannulation rate was 80% at a median postoperative interval of 3.2 weeks. Seventy percent of patients achieved oral intake with pureed food or better, and upward motion of the flap was documented by video swallowing studies. Articulation was particularly good. This innervated latissimus dorsi flap design therefore is a viable method for rehabilitation after total or subtotal glossectomy.