Abstract

Cancer is currently a main threat in the world and is the second most frequent cause of death in the majority of developed and developing countries. Oral cancer contributes a major part. The need of the hour is the management of the oral cancer patient as early as possible. Oral cancer is the most common cancer in India; the reason is due to tobacco usage, poor oral hygiene, Human papillomavirus. Surgery plays an important role in the management of oral cancer and adjuvant therapy is used if required. The surgical defect needs to be reconstructed. The choice of reconstruction depends on multiple factors including site, size, shape, thickness, function, and esthetics. Functional consideration includes oral competence, speech, chewing, and swallowing. Esthetics considers the framework and face contour. Early-stage oral cancer defects can be managed with local or regional flaps. In this presentation, the author presents the different types of local flaps in reconstruction of the oral cancer surgical defects. Different methods and techniques in the reconstruction of oral cancer surgical defects are available. In this microvascular era, the local flaps also play a major role. The radial forearm flap or the fibula flap can be a great support for big defects. The idea of this presentation is to show how simple local flaps can be of great use in most oral cancer surgical defects. The nasolabial flap, submental flap, sternocleidomastoid flap, masseter flap, transposition flap, tongue flap, platysmal flap, etc can be used in many cases.  These flaps are simple to harvest and it is not going to affect the donor site. This presentation reviews the author’s experience in the field of reconstruction of oral cancer surgical defects.