Successful treatment of severe facial lymphedema by lymphovenous anastomosis.

BACKGROUND: Facial edema is a common complication after neck dissection and/or chemoradiotherapy for head and neck cancer. Edema subsides spontaneously in most cases but sometimes persists, in which case surgical intervention is required. We report a case of severe facial edema that showed significant improvement upon lymphovenous anastomosis (LVA).

METHODS: A 66-year-old man with oral floor cancer developed progressive facial lymphedema after tumor resection, bilateral neck dissections, chemoradiotherapy, and fibular and rectus abdominis musculocutaneous flap transfer. His eyesight was completely disturbed due to severe eyelid edema. The LVAs were performed in the bilateral preauricular area. Surgical findings showed stagnation of the lymphatic fluids in dilated lymphatic vessels, which were drained to the superficial temporal veins by LVA.

RESULTS: The edema subsided rapidly and the patient's eyesight returned as soon as 4 days postoperatively.

CONCLUSION: Using LVA in the preauricular region can be a choice of surgical treatment for severe facial edema.