Mucosal defect repair with a polyglycolic acid sheet

OBJECTIVE

Early-stage oral or oropharyngeal carcinomas are often treated with surgical resection. Resulting wounds that are too large for primary closure can be covered with skin grafts or patches made from various biomaterials. Recently, polyglycolic acid sheets have been used for this purpose.

METHODS

We treated six patients with large wounds resulting from the resection of oral or oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma by grafting polyglycolic acid sheet patches. All patients were initially treated at the National Cancer Center East Hospital from March 2010 through July 2012. After mucosal resection, the wounds were covered with polyglycolic acid sheet patches attached with fibrin glue. Oral intake was started 4 days after surgery.

RESULTS

Mucosal resection was the initial treatment in seven patients (five with oral squamous cell carcinoma and two with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma). The polyglycolic acid sheet patches became detached in two patients (on the day of surgery and on postoperative day 6), who then required large doses of analgesics. A patient who underwent tooth extraction also required large doses of analgesics. The other four patients required only small doses of analgesics. One patient had bleeding at the surgical site. No adverse effects were caused by the polyglycolic acid sheet patch or by fibrin glue.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study has shown that grafting of a polyglycolic acid sheet patch is effective and provides good pain control for patients with large, open wounds after mucosal resection of oral or oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. We plan to evaluate tissue contraction and oral intake after polyglycolic acid patch grafting.