A Giant Facial Tumor Successfully Removed in the Shanghai Ninth Hospital
A giant facial neurofibroma was successfully removed in the Ninth Hospital affiliated to the Shanghai Second Medical University; the patient has already been discharged from the hospital.
The patient had a 23 cm, 3kg huge tumor on the left side of the face. The left eye was dragged down that had caused loss of vision. The left auditory canal was blocked, which had led to hearing loss. And the facial bone was deformed due to the compression of the tumor lesion. Bite occlusion of the upper and lower teeth was impossible. The tumor also compressed the esophagus, in which food passes, and the trachea, also know as the air tube, causing difficulty in swallowing and in respiration (see picture A). The diagnosis was multiple neurofibromas.
The patient was jointly operated on by Dr. Zhiyuan Zhang, the director of the hospital, and Dr. Ping Chen, the chief of the department of oral maxillofacial surgery. An extensive tumor resection was performed with the wound repaired by the free latissimus dorsi flap, a versatile and very reliable free flap with its constant vascular anatomy and long pedicle. The surgery lasted seven and half hours. The superficial vessels were initially ligated to allow the approach to the tumor. The compressed and deformed internal carotid artery that supplies blood to the brain was carefully separated from the tumor. The giant tumor lesion was then removed. The 18x10 cm muscular flap was used to cover the large area of skin defect.
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