II-Y–Shaped Vascular Anastomosis for Free Flap Transfer in Head and Neck Reconstruction in Vessel-Depleted Neck

In vessel-depleted neck, salvage free flap transfer for head and neck reconstruction is challenging because the difficulty of selecting the recipient vessel and the discrepancy of vessel diameters. Here, the authors describe a novel technique for vascular anastomosis, which allows 2 thin donor veins end-to-end anastomosed with the larger recipient vein. This II-Y-shaped vascular anastomosis for free flap reconstruction were performed at Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Oral and Maxillofacial Oncology, West China Stomatology Hospital, Sichuan University. The patient received anterolateral thigh flap transfer after tumor excision. The ligated stump of external jugular vein was anastomosed to the enlarged accompanying veins of the anterolateral thigh flap. The flap survived completely without complications. The II-Y-shaped vascular anastomosis procedures were easy to perform and no complications were observed. Result suggests this novel technique could be useful in free flap transfer in vessel-depleted neck as an efficient way of adjusting the limited diameters.