[Reconstruction of the mouth floor using a musculo-mucosal buccinator flap supplied by facial vessels. Report of ten cases].

The buccinator muscle is a wide, flat quadrangular muscle. Its medial surface is covered by the oral mucosa. It receives its arterial blood supply from two main arteries: the facial and buccal arteries. A musculo-mucosal flap can be raised on the facial artery with or without the facial vein. In the case of absence of the facial vein, venous drainage is possible into the peri-arterial loose areolar tissue. A nasolabial skin incision facilitates facial artery identification and simplifies flap dissection in the loose areolar plane, superficial to the facial artery. The mean dimensions of the flap are 3.5 cm in width and 7 cm in length. The flap extends from the superior buccal sulcus to the inferior alveolar ridge. Its rotation enables reconstruction of the anterior and lateral floor of the mouth. The donor site is closed in two layers. The authors present a series of ten patients reconstructed with this flap after excision of a squamous cell carcinoma of the floor of the mouth. The results are excellent with perfect tongue function and no esthetic sequelae. The facial artery should be preserved during neck dissection, and the ipsilateral mandibular molar teeth must be extracted. Its simplicity and reliability makes this flap a useful alternative in floor of mouth reconstruction.