Supermicrosurgery for oncologic reconstructions

With advancement of microsurgical techniques, supermicrosurgery has been developed. Supermicrosurgery allows manipulation (dissection and anastomosis) of vessels and nerves with an external diameter of 0.5 mm or smaller. Because quality of life of cancer survivors is becoming a major issue, less invasive and functionally-better oncological reconstruction using supermicrosurgical techniques attracts attention. Conventional free flap reconstruction usually sacrifices major vessels and muscle functions, whereas supermicrosurgical free flaps can be transferred from anywhere using innominate vessels without sacrifice of major vessel/muscle. Since a 0.1-0.5 mm vessel can be anastomosed, patient-oriented least invasive reconstruction can be accomplished with supermicrosurgery. Another important technique is lymphatic anastomosis. Only with supermicrosurgery, lymph vessels can be securely anastomosed, because lymph vessel diameter is usually smaller than 0.5 mm. With clinical application of lymphatic supermicrosurgery, various least invasive lymphatic reconstruction has become possible. Lymphatic reconstruction plays an important role in prevention and treatment of lymphatic diseases following oncologic surgery such as lymphedema, lymphorrhea, and lymphocyst. With supermicrosurgery, various tissues such as skin/fat, fascia, bone, tendon, ligament, muscle, and nerves can be used in combination to reconstruct complicated defects; including 3-dimensional inset with multi-component tissue transfer.