[Our clinical experience with fibula free flap]

[Combined transplantation of a free skin island flap supplied by a septo-cutaneous perforator of the posterior tibial artery and the underlying fibula for the full reconstruction of the mandible and the mouth floor]

Microsurgical transplantation of the osteo-cutaneous fibula as a free flap to reconstruct the defect following radical resection of a mouth floor's tumor is a well-known and often applied procedure. Anatomy of the vessels supplying this flap is recognized but it may have some rare and unexpected variations. In this case report we discuss the reconstruction of the middle and lateral parts of the mandible which was resected due to a T4 gingival tumor. Interestingly, the aforementioned segment of the fibula and the overlying skin island were supplied by different pedicles, both emerging from the posterior tibial vessels. Both flaps were transplanted using autologous arterial and venous grafts of the peroneal artery and vein in case of the fibula. We believe this case is worth publishing due to its relative rarity in the literature and the applied surgical method.

[Role of fibula in replacement of mandible]

The mandible and the fibula are two totally different bones of the human skeleton. The fibula is a long straight bone of the lower leg playing secondary role compared with the tibia. The mandible, or jaw bone, is the only facial bone that moves and has complex spatial structure. The blood supply of the mandible is mainly endosteal, the inferior mandibular artery, which is one of the more important branch of the maxillary artery is responsible for its arterial supply. The fibula shows the uniform pattern of periosteal blood supply receiving many small branches from the peroneal artery, and having only weak endosteal supply. The mandible articulates with the two temporal bone, and the fibula articulates with the tibia at the tibio-fibular syndesmosis and distally has a role in the formation of the lateral talocrural joint. The demand for mandibular replacement was approved simultaneously with the appearance of ablative surgery for head and neck cancer. As knowledge of physiology and pharmacology expanded in the twentieth century, major developments in the field of anesthesiology and surgery opened new windows of ablative cancer surgery that were previously unimaginable. Soldiers were badly wounded with extensive soft-tissue defects during World Wars and in certain countries, high gun ownership rates show substantial correlations with gun-related injuries. Health care development and the invention and wide-spread use of antibiotics revolutionized medical treatment and improved recovery rates and reduced mortality following trauma. Total or partial loss of the mandible without reconstruction incurs serious functional and psychological morbidity for patients. Prior to the development of advanced reconstruction options for mandibular defects, they were left with terrible cosmetic deformities. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, various attempts were made to replace the mandible but the major breakthrough was the appearance of the microvascular technique at the end of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties.