Irfan Ullah, Alamzeb Khan, Naveed Khan, Syed Asif Shah, Tahmeed Ullah.
Indications and Outcome of Nasolabial Flap: Experience at a Plastic Surgical Facility.
Ann Pak Inst Med Sci Jan ;8(3):168-71.

Objective: To document the indications and outcome of nasolabial flap in reconstruction of facial defects caused by trauma, tumour ablation or infection. Study Design: Descriptive study Place and duration of the Study: This descriptive study was carried out in the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) Peshawar from Jan 2006 to Jan 2011. Materials and Methods: All adult patients of either gender, who were admitted to our Department and underwent nasolabial flap coverage for their surgical defects, were prospectively included in the study Results: Out of the 49 patients, 30(61.22%) were males and 19(38.77) were females. The patients ranged in age between 17-61 years with mean age of 41.83 ± 9.71 years. Tumour ablative surgery was the commonest cause of defects (83.63%, n=41). Nose was the most common site of the defects (n=19, 38.77 %). All flaps survived completely. The colour match was good in all cases. The contour match was good in patients with nasal dorsum, lip and medial cheek defects while the patients with nasal tip and columella reconstructions needed further debulking procedures to get a contour match with the surrounding nasal tissue. The donor site healed well with no functional loss. There was no mortality in this case series. Conclusion: The nasolabial flap is a versatile local flap that can be employed to resurface a variety of facial defects resulting from tumour ablation, trauma, burn injury or infection. It has favorable outcome in terms of survival, colour and contour match, donor site healing and overall functional outcome. Hence it can be considered as the workhorse flap for reconstructing moderate facial defects.

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