Masseter muscle flap for reconstruction of intra-oral defects in patients with early cancer of posterior-inferior parts of the oral cavity

Abstract Introduction Early carcinomas of the oral cavity in the posterior-inferior regions poses a challenge for reconstruction due to the lack of muscle support underneath and the limited space available to use some of the frequently-used flaps. Objective This study was done to evaluate the efficacy of the superiorly based masseter muscle flap in reconstruction of intra-oral post- ablation defects in patients with early oral carcinoma of the posterior-inferior part of the oral cavity. Methods A superiorly based masseter muscle flap were used to reconstruct the post-surgical intra- oral defect in 60 patients with early squamous cell carcinoma (T