Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of the submental island flap for repair of oral defects after radical resection of early-stage oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Methods Between February 2010 and August 2011, 15 cases of early-stage OSCC were treated. Of 15 cases, 9 were male and 6 were female, aged from 48 to 71 years (mean, 63 years). The disease duration was 28-73 days (mean, 35 days). Primary lesions included tongue (3 cases), buccal mucosa (8 cases), retromolar area (2 cases), and floor of mouth mucosa (2 cases). According to TNM classification of International Union Against Cancer (UICC, 2002) of oral cancer and oropharyngeal cancer, 2 cases were classified as T1N0M0 and 13 cases as T2N0M0. The results of the pathologic type were high differentiated squamous cell carcinoma in 11 cases and moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma in 4 cases. The defect after resection of the lesion ranged from 5 cm × 3 cm to 8 cm × 6 cm. All the cases underwent radical resection of the primary lesion and immediate reconstruction with submental island flap except 1 case with radial forearm free flap because of no definite venous drainage. The sizes of the submental island flap varied from 6 cm × 4 cm to 9 cm × 6 cm. Results Operation time ranged from 4 hours and 30 minutes to 7 hours and 10 minutes (mean, 5 hours and 53 minutes) in 14 cases undergoing repair with submental island flap. All the flaps survived completely in 13 cases except 1 case having superficial necrosis of the flap, which was cured after conservative treatment. Temporary marginal mandibular nerve palsy occurred in 1 case, and was cured after 3 months; submandibular effusion was observed in 3 cases, and was cured after expectant treatment. The follow-up period ranged from 8 to 15 months (mean, 10.5 months) in 14 cases undergoing repair with submental island flap. Hair growth was seen on the flap and became sparse after 3 months in 2 male cases. The appearance of the face, opening mouth, swallowing, and speech were recovered well in 14 cases, and the donor site had no obvious scar. The follow-up period was 13 months in 1 case undergoing repair with radical free forearm flap, and the appearance and function were recovered well. No local recurrence was found during follow-up. Conclusion The submental island flap has reliable blood supply, and could be harvested simply and rapidly. It can be used to repair oral defects in patients with early-stage OSCC after radical resection.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the correlation between the expression of cytokeratin 19 (CK19) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). MethodsPubMed, EMbase, CJFD, CBM, CNKI, VIP, WanFang Data and The Cochrane Library (Issue 1, 2015) were electronically searched from inception to January 1st 2015 to collect case-control studies about the correlation between CK19 expression and clinical pathogenic features in OSCC. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. ResultsA total of 11 studies were included, involving 612 OSCC cases and 564 normal controls. The results of meta-analysis showed that:The expression levels of CK19 were significantly different between the OSCC group and the control group, between OSCC groups with and without lymph node metastasis, between the high differentiation group and the middle/poor differentiation group, and between the clinical stage I group and the clinical stages Ⅱ to Ⅲ group (all P values≤0.05). However, there were no significant differences in expression levels of CK19 between the male OSCC group and the female OSCC group, and between the carcinoma size T1/T2 group and the T3/T4 group (all P values >0.05). ConclusionCurrent evidence shows that, CK19 expression may be associated with the occurrence, development and transfer of OSCC, and may be positively corrected with tumor malignance. It may be an indicator of poor prognosis and can be considered as a molecular marker of OSCC.