Management of Chyle Leak After Head and Neck Surgery; Our Meritorious Experience in 52 Cases and Review of Literature.

Iatrogenic chyle leak is commonly seen when dissection happens very low in neck. Management of chyle leak is conservative with compression dressing, fat restricted diet, somatostatin analogues. Surgery is required in extreme cases with failure of conservative treatment. This is a retrospective observational study carried out from a prospectively maintained database. A total of 6482 head and neck surgeries with neck dissections were carried out between January 2015 till July 2020 at our tertiary cancer center. Out of which there were 52 cases of chyle leak reported post neck dissection. All details regarding age, sex, primary tumor location, surgery performed, level of nodal dissection performed, details related to chyle leak from beginning day and its progression and management offered. The median age in the study group was 42 years (24-70 years). Chyle leak was most commonly seen on left side (88.5%). Low output leaks(n = 43) resolved within a median period of 9 days (5-13 days) period of conservative management. High output leak (n = 9) had leak resolution within a median period of 12 days (7-19 days). Patients who had received preoperative radiotherapy and who had extra nodal extension in lymph nodes had significantly higher incidence of high output leaks. Chyle leak is a rare but serious complication in head and neck surgery. Timely identification and management is crucial. Conservative management is mainstay. Surgical management is instituted in cases of failure of conservative management.

Bilobed PMMC in Females: Our Challenging yet Meritorious Experience.

The gold standard reconstructive options for full-thickness defect of the oral cavity after resection of malignant lesions are the free flaps. But in developing nations due to resource constraints, it cannot be offered to all. Hence, pectoralis major myocutaneous (PMMC) flap as bilobed flaps is most commonly used. Bilobed flaps are technically demanding, and in females, it is more challenging due to higher complication rates especially in large breasts. There has been no major reported data evaluating outcomes of bilobed PMMC in females. This is a retrospective evaluation of outcomes of patients who underwent the bilobed PMMC flap reconstruction for full-thickness defect of the oral cavity after resection of malignant lesions from June 2018 to December 2019. Out of 80 patients, all patients ultimately had adequate tissue coverage for the defect with acceptable facial aesthetics. Functional outcomes with regards to oral continence, speech and swallowing were encouraging. Our study had 33.75% flap-related complications. Fifteen percent of patients developed varying degrees of flap loss, of which only 3.75% had total flap loss and 11.25% had partial flap loss which was managed accordingly. Our study concludes that with careful planning, raising of flap based on sound anatomic concepts and applying oncoplastic techniques, shortcomings of bilobed female PMMC can be addressed and still used as suitable alternatives for free flap for full-thickness oral cavity defects in limited resource settings.

Rare tumors of sinonasal track.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the clinical behavior of rare sinonasal malignancies. METHODS: Clinical data from the cases of rare sinonasal malignancies at Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute during 2001-2007 were extracted. Data for histologic type of tumor, tumor stage and survival were analyzed. RESULTS: Eighty-nine cases of the non-squamous cell malignancy were identified. The mean patient age was 54 years. In this study, we found minor salivary gland tumor in 31 patients, sarcoma in 19 patients, spindle cell carcinoma (SpCC) in 19 patients, undifferentiated carcinoma in 9 patients, lymphoma in 6 patients and melanoma in 3 patients. Adenoid cystic carcinoma exhibited the best survival rate (3 years survival rate was 77%), whereas melanoma and undifferentiated carcinoma exhibited poor survivals (1 year survival was 25% and 33%, respectively and 3 years survival rate is 0%). CONCLUSIONS: Adenoid cystic carcinoma is the most common squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the sinonasal track. Survival for the patients with undifferentiated carcinoma and melanoma involving the sinonasal track is poor.