Microvascular Techniques
The microvascular field relates to a group of surgical skills, used to return your face and neck to as close to normal as possible:
- Free muscle transfer — Your surgeon harvests a section of muscle, often from the back, or abdomen. Valuable for structural and functional areas, or to help seal off the central nervous system and promote healing.
- Free bone transfer — A procedure needing particular care, as precise alignment and skin coverage are required. Bone can be taken from a variety of places, depending on need, your fibula can be a good source.
- Free skin & fat transfer — A prime consideration for tissue selection will be vascularity, in essence, how well the local systems match. Your forearm, or thigh are often ideal for head and neck reconstruction.
- Free flap (or tissue) transfer — Free flap transfer is the common description for many forms of microvascular surgery. Neither are aspects always separate, multiple types of tissue can be transferred at the same time and often are.
Whilst our maxillofacial consultants carry out complex surgery, free flap transfer can be used to repair a small wound. This could be following removal of a facial lesion, or areas affected by skin cancer.
The same level of expertise applies to all microvascular surgery in our London clinic and to any tissue transplant. You are welcome to see further points on microvascular reconstruction, in line with the summary below.
Surgical Procedure
Preparation is likely to have involved a thorough personal consultation, along with any required testing and analysis. Perhaps imaging techniques such as MRI, or CT scans, cardiac investigation, tumour mapping, or biopsy.
The primary requirement is patient care and safety, based on understanding of an individual case and detailed treatment planning.
Forms of microvascular surgery can take place under local anaesthesia. The nature of the procedure and equipment used normally require general anaesthesia and a hospital environment.
Your surgery will have been discussed with you for as long as you need and personal preparation explained. What to do the night before and on the day of surgery, along with likely outcomes and recovery times.
The surgery will be carried out by an experienced maxillofacial consultant, who you will know. Support staff are well trained and the hospital facilities used are amongst the finest in the UK.
A Supportive Approach
Any family members you wish to be involved are welcome, during consultation, or at the hospital during treatment. Our staff are there at all times to offer support, or assist in any practical way you wish.
Recovery times will vary, depending on the nature of the surgery. You could be back to normal quite quickly, or sedated for a while.
The level of care during recovery from facial surgery will remain high. Any appropriate rehabilitative treatment, follow up appointments, medication, or wound care will be organised and fully discussed with you.
Microvascular surgery offers remarkable treatment opportunities, which we approach in a consultative, supportive way. By all means get in touch if we can help.
