Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of plastic surgery in the treatment of chronic wounds caused by radiotherapy in 30 patients. Subjects and method: A cross-sectional, prospective study was conducted on 30 patients with chronic wounds caused by radiotherapy, treated at National Institute of Burns from 10 - 2013 to 9-2017. | Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no1-2019 EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PLASTIC SURGERY IN THE TREATMENT OF CHRONIC WOUNDS CAUSED BY RADIOTHERAPY AT NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BURNS Hoang Thanh Tuan1; Vu Quang Vinh1; Trinh Tuan Dung2 SUMMARY Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of plastic surgery in the treatment of chronic wounds caused by radiotherapy in 30 patients. Subjects and method: A cross-sectional, prospective study was conducted on 30 patients with chronic wounds caused by radiotherapy, treated at National Institute of Burns from 10 - 2013 to 9 - 2017. Results: In 30 patients, 5 patients were males and 25 patients were females. The mean age was ± . The most common wound was in thoracic region (), followed by head and neck (). The size of 2 2 the soft tissue defects varied from 4 - 300 cm (mean ± cm ). We used 8 local flaps, 17 pedicle flaps, 4 free flaps and 1 Wolf-Krause graft. The latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap and gluteal perforator artery fasciocutaneus flap were used in the majority of these cases. The average drainage time was ± 6 days. The average length of hospital stay was 52 ± 32 days. The donor site was primarily closed in 18 patients, 12 patients required skin graft. 1 patient had partial flap necrosis, 2 patients had complete necrotized flap. Conclusion: Plastic surgery in the treatment of chronic dermal wounds caused by radiotherapy by maximum debridement and covering with local, pedicle, microsurgical flaps had good results. So far however, the treatment of chronic dermal wounds resulted from radiotherapy remains a big challenge to surgeons because of high risk complication, infection, delayed wound healing, and flap necrosis. * Keywords: Chronic dermal wounds; Surgical reconstruction; Radiation injury. INTRODUCTION Radiation has been used in medicine for more than a century and it plays an increasingly important role in the treatment of cancers. It is estimated that more than 60% of .
