Reconstructive Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Facial Trauma Reconstruction
Our oral and maxillofacial surgeons are uniquely qualified to manage and treat facial trauma. They care for facial injuries by repairing routine and complex facial skin lacerations (cuts), setting fractured jaw and facial bones, reconnecting severed nerves and ducts, and treating other injuries. These procedures include care of oral tissues, the jaws, cheek and nasal bones, the forehead, and eye sockets.
Facial trauma care is provided through the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center.
Microvascular Reconstruction
Microvascular flap surgery (free tissue transfer) is a technique of transferring a patient’s own tissue from one part of the body to another to reconstruct defects of the head and neck because of tumors, facial trauma or infections. The surgeon is able to “auto-transplant” any tissue type including, bone muscle and skin.
This type of surgery is often very lengthy and labor intensive due to the need for suturing of blood vessels under an operating microscope. Success rates for microvascular surgery are excellent but require close monitoring of the flap blood flow via special Doppler probes (measure the “heartbeat” of the flap) during the post-operative hospitalization.
Common donor sites selected for head and neck reconstruction include:
- Fibula (leg bone)
- Iliac crest (hip bone)
- Scapula (shoulder blade)
- Forearm/wrist skin (forearm flap)
- Thigh skin (thigh flap)
Reconstructive Surgery of the Head and Neck
University of Maryland oral-maxillofacial specialists use state of the art reconstructive surgery for post traumatic and cancer related problems of the head and neck.
Our physicians provide a full range of reconstructive surgical procedures including:
- Microvascular free flap surgical techniques to immediately reconstruct head and neck defects as a result of tumor/cancer extirpative surgery
- Bone grafting procedures (synthetic and autogenous) for oral-maxillofacial defects
- Reconstruction of bone, muscle, skin and mucosa via the transfer of tissue from other regions of the body
- Utilization of computer assisted preoperative surgical planning
- Stereotactic intraoperative computer navigation