Faculty Bibliography

Angiographic experience with chemodectomas in 21 patients is reviewed. Arterial supply was identified from the vertebral artery, the internal carotid artery, and branches of the external carotid artery. A striated cephalad extension from a cervical chemodectoma (five patients) is believed to represent arterial supply to tumor in vein. In two patients, internal and external carotid arteriograms did not opacify important arteries originating near the carotid bifurcation. Retrograde filling of sigmoid sinus (four patients), tumor mass in jugular vein (two patients), and arteriovenous shunting (nine patients) were observed during the venous phase. Thorough angiogra phy is essential for evaluation of chemodectomas of the head and neck.

This report presents a case of squamous cell carcinoma of the temporal bone induced by high dose radiation therapy. Several important surgical techniques are stressed which serve to make this procedure far safer in the avoidance of catastrophic hemorrhage.

We present a case of intramuscular hemangioma of the masseter muscle. We stress that, although there can be apparent vascular infiltration of the muscle, this lesion is benign; it should not be mistakenly diagnosed as an angiosarcoma.

The authors describe the use of the infrahyoid ("strap") muscles as a muscle transposition flap to obliterate the "dead space" created during resection of the anterior floor of the mouth for carcinoma concomitant with suprahyoid neck dissection or radical neck dissection. The flap is particularly useful if the mandible is partially resected and immediately stabilized with a steel pin or bolt.

A technique is described whereby limited soft tissue defects may be cosmetically improved using autogenous fascial strips. These strips of fascia lata are threaded onto a cadaveric needle that is tunneled subdermally, in a "basket weaving," criss-crossed fashion, augmenting the soft tissue defect and separating the scar from the underlying tissue. There are minimal incisions in the skin for this augmentation and there is very little local tissue reaction.