The musculocutaneous infrahyoid flap: surgical key points.

For the first time in 1979, it was described by Wang that the infrahyoid musculocutaneous flap (IHMC flap) appears to be extremely suitable for medium-sized head and neck defect. Nevertheless, this flap remains unpopular because of its pretended lack of reliability. The aim of this study is to describe the surgical key points and to expose its main advantages. An IHMC flap was achieved on 32 patients to repair tissue loss due to surgical resection of a squamous cell carcinoma of the upper aero-digestive tract, from March 2006 to January 2010. Medical records of each of these patients were retrospectively analysed by the investigators including the detailed clinical, pathological and operative reports. No patient presented with total flap necrosis. However, we experienced four skin paddles necrosis. In two cases, the necrosis was total and in two cases partial. All donor sites were closed primarily without any tension. One patient showed a major dehiscence of the neck skin incision that required a pectoralis major flap. The IHMC flap is reliable and the harvesting technique is simple when the surgical key points are respected. Its advantages make it a convenient flap for medium-sized head and neck defect.

Transillumination Assisted Cricopharyngeal Myotomy.

Abstract: Cricopharyngeal muscle myotomy (CPM) is a common intervention for relief of dysphagia in patients with Oculo-pharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD). Because of difficulties in approaching and dissecting cricopharyngeal muscle in these patients, we used transillumination for the myotomy (TA-CPM). Transillumination is a simple technique to improve the guidance and navigation of the surgeon in determining the location and depth of myotomy. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of transillumination in CPM in OPMD patients. An observational cohort of patients with OPMD who underwent CPM due to dysphagia at one medical center between 2010 and 2019. Two groups of patients are included, according to whether transillumination was used during their surgery. Patients were evaluated before and after surgery (1 week and 1 month) for their dysphagia score with a standardized questionnaire. The surgical team preferences, experience and complexity with and without transillumination were evaluated. Ten OPMD patients (8 heterozygotes, 2 homozygotes for the commonmutation) underwent CPM for relieving dysphagia symptoms at medium size medical center in Israel between 2010 and 2019. Five patients had TA-CPM and the 5 patients had CPM without transillumination. All patients showed an improvement at follow-up examinations, 1 week and 1 month postoperative, including a decrease in dysphagia score and in choking and aspiration events, compared to their preoperative state. TA-CPM improved the surgical approach, reduced the difficulty of CPM and was preferred by the surgical team. From the patients' point of view, TA-CPM was as good as a non-transillumination approach in improving dysphagia. TA-CPM is a cheap, fast and simple technique to improve the surgical outcomes in CPM for patients with OPMD. TA-CPM navigates the surgeon, helps with anatomical orientation, improve the surgeon's comfortable, may shorten the duration of surgery and reduces potential errors. Improvement in dysphagia score was similar in both groups. This technique may improve myotomy procedures for dysphagia of other etiologies. Level of evidence: IV. Case series (with or without comparison). Endoscopic transillumination assisted myotomy.

Comparative analysis of micro-RNAs in human papillomavirus-positive versus -negative oropharyngeal cancers.

BACKGROUND: Oncogenic mechanisms of human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal cancer are still poorly characterized. Analysis of their microRNA expression profile might provide valuable information. METHODS: The microRNA expression profiles were analyzed by micro-arrays in 26 oropharyngeal cancers. A microRNA signature specific to HPV-status was identified by analyzing a learning/training set consisting of 16 oropharyngeal cancers. The robustness of this signature was further confirmed by blind case-by-case classification of a validation set composed of 10 independent tumors. Putative targeted molecular pathways were proposed using DIANA miRPath online software (http://microrna.gr/mirpath). RESULTS: We have identified 25 miRNA signatures, which discriminates HPV16-positive oropharyngeal cancer from their HPV-negative counterparts. These 25 microRNAs play a potential role in Wnt and PI3K-pathways, cell-adhesion/cell-polarity, and the cytoskeleton regulation. CONCLUSION: Our study contributes to a better understanding of pathogenic mechanisms involved in the development of HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer and in the identification of potential therapeutic molecular targets. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: 1708-1716, 2016.