ENTERAL RESECTION FOR JEJUNAL AUTOTRANSPL ANTATION IN RECONSTRUCTION OF THE OROPHARYNGEAL CAVITY IS A SAFE PROCEDURE

Reconstruction after radical tumor resection in the oropharyngeal regi on still represents an interdisciplinary challenge. Autotransplantatio n of the jejunum is a popular procedure, in which the abdominal surgeo n's main task is that of harvesting enteral tissue. To evaluate this t echnique, a careful analysis of accompanying perioperative abdominal c omplications was performed. Additionally, we reexamined 35 of 66 patie nts still living after a follow-up period of 21 (range 2-63) months on average. The perioperative mortality of 90 patients treated for oroph aryngeal malignancy using the described procedure was 7.8%. None of th e perioperative deaths was caused by an abdominal complication associa ted with enteral resection. One abdominal reoperation was performed be cause of abdominal wall dehiscence. For reasons not related to enteral resection, four further patients had to be relaparotomized, two of th em during their hospital stay and two after leaving hospital. In five cases we observed minor complications which could be treated nonsurgic ally. In the followup reexamination we detected no abdominal late-onse t complication except small incisional hernias in six cases. Finally, we concluded that despite an elevated overall operative risk in this p opulation, complications owing to jejunal resection were comparably lo w. The data regarding the rate of complications classify jejunal resec tion as a safe procedure for reconstructive purposes in patients suffe ring from oropharyngeal malignancy.