Improved Techniques for Reconstructing the Tongue

A study has shown that new techniques for reconstructing the tongue during surgery for mouth cancer can restore a patient's ability to articulate speech and swallow normal food. The study was published in the December 2002 issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology.

The study involved 43 patients, average age 58, who had half or more of the tongue removed and who received reconstruction at the time of surgery. Surgeons reconstructed the forward portion of the tongue in 30 and the base of the tongue in 13. Replacement tongues were constructed using new folding techniques developed by Bruce H. Haughey, M.D., associate professor of otolaryngology at Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, MO) and his co-authors.

These techniques were designed to provide the optimum shape, size, and mobility for speech and swallowing. In most cases, replacement tongues were fashioned from tissue taken from the forearm or thigh. Patients receiving tongue-base replacement had an overall speech intelligibility score of 98% and those receiving forward tongue replacement had an overall score of 76%, compared to 78% and 40-50%, respectively, reported in other studies.

"The way forward from here involves more complicated approaches such as tongue transplantation which, from our preliminary investigations, appear technically successful,” noted Dr. Haughey.




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