Flaps in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery : Head and Neck

Surgical practice routinely involves excision of body parts for treatment of pathologic lesions, producing defects of varying sizes. Defects may also be caused by other factors such as trauma, burns etc. Reconstruction of the lost body part is important in many respects. They include provision for cover, restoration of function and aesthetic rehabilitation. Flaps are usually used to repair structural defects following surgery i.e for malignant condition of head and neck. A flap is a unit of tissue that is transferred from one site (donorsite) to another (recipient site) while maintaining its own blood supply.Flaps come in many different shapes and forms. They range from simple advancements of skin to composites of many different types of tissue. These composites need not consist only of soft tissue. They may include skin, muscle, bone, fat, or fascia.