Transposition Mucosal Flap Combined With Autologous Fat Transplantation to Repair Lip Defects Caused by Sclerotherapy of Hemangioma.

Abstract: Infantile hemangiomas are the most common benign childhood tumors and can occur on any part of the human body. Sclerosing agents are used in the early stage of treatment of infantile hemangioma. Sometimes a lip defect remains after sclerosing agent treatment. We developed a simple technique to repair lip defects. The authors performed transposition mucosal flap and autologous fat transplantation surgery on patients who had lip defects caused by sclerosing agents. The flap was transposed 90° from the intraoral labial mucosa to the vermilion defect. Autologous fat was transplanted to the white lip defect. If necessary, a secondary fat transplantation may be performed every half year. All patients were followed up to evaluate the effect of the operation. Patients were asked to rate their satisfaction with the surgery between 1 and 10. Digital three-dimensional evaluation was performed. Sixteen patients underwent the surgery successfully, and the flaps were all viable. No complications occurred after surgery (5 males, 11 females; age range, 5-27 years; 12 upper lip, 3 lower lip, and 1 median lip). The patients were satisfied with the aesthetic outcome of surgery (mean score, 9). Seven patients wanted to undergo a second fat transplantation, whereas 9 patients felt it was unnecessary to transplant fat again. Transposition mucosal flap combined with autologous fat transplantation is reliable and minimally invasive. It is an effective method for repairing moderate lip defects mainly involving vermilion caused by a sclerosing agent.
Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest.
(Copyright © 2021 by Mutaz B. Habal, MD.)