Skin-plastic surgery in patients with late radiation injuries of soft tissues

Abstract

During the years of widespread use of radiotherapy in cancer patients, the incidence of local radiation damage to soft tissues (of varying severity) reached 30–40% or more. The experience of the radiation injury treatment department in the 70s and 80s indicates that every 2–3 beds were occupied by patients with this pathology. With the development of radiology, the introduction of new sources and techniques, the frequency of formation of such changes in the zone of irradiation fields has significantly decreased and currently stands at about 2%. The purpose of the proposed study is to demonstrate the possibilities of skin plastic surgery in this contingent of people who, as a rule, do not receive qualified care for a long time. As part of the work carried out, the time elapsed from the moment of formation of pathological changes to hospitalization in the department, on average, was 3–5 years, and was filled with ineffective conservative measures. Over the past 4 years, 60 reconstructive plastic surgeries have been performed in the radiation injury treatment department using musculoskeletal (21), skin fascial (21), skin (10) flaps, as well as plasty with local tissues (8). In the early postoperative period, the most common complication was marginal necrosis of the flap (13) which in 11 patients caused repeated operations in the form of secondary sutures or, in the case when it was not possible to perform this, plastic surgery of the defect with insular skin flaps was applied to the granulating wound. Subsequently, complete healing of the postoperative wound was noted in such patients. Thus, the proposed options for the reconstruction of radiation ulcers that developed after combined and radiation treatment of malignant neoplasms are highly effective methods that can get rid of disfiguring defects, improve the quality of life and restore social activity in almost 100% of patients.

Keywords

• radiation therapy
• complications
• late radiation injuries of the skin
• surgical treatment
• rehabilitation