Is skin necessary for intraoral reconstruction with myocutaneous flaps?

Intraoral defects may be reconstructed in many ways following cancer resection. Following the advent of the myocutaneous flap, this has been very much the mainstay in intraoral reconstructive surgery. Although it has proved to be a reliable flap it has certain innate disadvantages which can often be attributed to the skin component of the flap. This paper attempts to make a case for using muscle-only pedicle flaps such as pectoralis major, masseter transfer and latissmus dorsi flaps.