"Dismasking flap" is the cranio-orbito-facial degloving technique employing circum-palpebral with or without piriform margin incisions and presents a wide surgical fields under direct view. With the use of dismasking flap it was possible to completely resect tumors of the nasal cavity extending the orbit, the maxilla and the anterior cranial base. Dismasking flap is very useful for craniofacial tumor especially for malignant tumor, severe complex fracture of craniofacial bone and approach of the middle cranial base. This flap is retracted far way down so that there is little traction on the facial nerve branches in the flap and the middle cranial base comes into view with little compression on the brain. Since 1994, 13 patients have undergone Dismaking flap technique. The indicated cases were multiple cranio-facial bone fracture (3 cases) and malignant or premalignant craniofacial tumor (10 cases). The patients ranged in age from 3 to 62 years. The period of postoperative follow-up was from 2 to 7 years. There were no perioperative major complications. In minor complications, there were temporary lagophthalmos, blephaloptosis and partial skin necrosis after vascular embolization in three cases, but no permanent facial palsy in all cases. In this paper, we report the procedure of dismasking flap, its postoperative course and its complication.
View Synopsis (.doc format, 385.0 kb)