Experience with the deltopectoral flap.

One hundred and three non-delayed deltopectoral flaps were used for head and neck reconstruction in 86 patients. A retrospective analysis to detect factors with negative influence on the reconstruction resulted in two significant risk factors (p less than 0.05): irradiated recipient site and internal location of recipient site. The flap failure rate was not significantly affected by variations in flap length, age, sex or concomitant diseases. The mean stay in hospital was 10 weeks and was significantly prolonged for patients having had radiotherapy, internal reconstructions or flap failure (p less than 0.05).