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Patient Experience:
Returning to Daily Life After Palate Reconstruction Surgery
Patients undergoing surgery for removal of cancer from the mouth often have large openings in the palate (roof of the mouth) where the cancer had been, leaving them unable to eat, drink or speak normally unless the defect is somehow repaired.
One solution is the surgical reassignment of a muscle normally used for chewing to fill the space left in the palate, a procedure that has been advanced at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and has produced excellent results for head and neck cancer patients.
Having done 400 major head and neck reconstruction procedures over the past decade, J. Dale Browne, M.D., a professor of otolaryngology, is one of the region's leading experts in both the microvascular replacement of bone and soft tissue and the use of the temporalis muscle for palate repair.
Although he didn't invent it, Browne has developed the use of the temporalis muscle to rebuild the palate following removal of palatal and nearby malignancies, and is one of the few surgeons in the country doing it routinely.
The procedure will be featured in a live webcast on May 16 at 5 p.m..
