In a complex surgery, the cancer is removed and the face is reconstructed

Plastic surgeon Dr. med. Jānis Zariņš, together with Dr. Renārs Deksnis, Dr. Lidija Viktorija Artiševska, and their team, performed a unique surgery

At Riga East University Hospital, medical staff saved the life of a 43-year-old patient by performing a complex and radical 13-hour surgical procedure to remove a head and neck tumor. The patient had a very extensively locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma that had affected several anatomical regions: the lower jaw, the floor of the mouth, the tongue, and facial tissues. In addition, tumor metastases had already been found in the cervical lymph nodes.

The surgery had been carefully planned in advance. Thanks to Dr. med. Jānis Zariņš’s collaboration with the Baltic Center of Excellence in Biomaterials at Riga Technical University, a custom-made sawing platform was created for the patient to enable a more anatomically precise reconstruction of the removed lower jaw.

“For the first time, a cancer patient underwent a triple microvascular flap transplant: a bone graft to reconstruct the jaw, a soft tissue graft to create a new tongue and floor of the mouth, and a third soft tissue graft to repair a facial tissue defect. Nine vascular anastomoses were sutured to ensure the viability of the transplanted tissues. Such a complex reconstruction was necessary to fully restore the patient’s lost structures and to enable the patient to breathe freely again, eat, drink, speak, and look good,” says plastic surgeon Dr. med. Jānis Zariņš, expressing satisfaction with the results.

For more information, see the attached video: