Submental island flap and bone variation

Abstract

The submental island flap is a versatile pedicle flap for reconstruction of head and neck defects. Initially described over 20 years ago, numerous modifications have been described with successful treatment of a wide range of surgical defects including all oral cavity sub-sites and facial defects involving the orbital rim, zygoma, and malar eminence. The current paper is a review of the relevant anatomy, detailed description of the harvest technique, and review of published studies since the submental island flap was initially described.