Switch Flap for Upper Eyelid Reconstruction—How Soon Should the Flap Be Divided?

BACKGROUND: The results of a cohort of patients treated at one institution for upper eyelid reconstruction with the switch flap method after a defect due to excision of malignant tumor were reviewed. METHODS: A retrospective data file review of all patients who had undergone total upper eyelid reconstruction with the switch flap method was conducted at the Saga University Hospital between April 2000 and October 2014. The follow-up lasted for varying periods during which the preoperative and postoperative photographs were compared as well. RESULTS: A total of 10 patients with upper eyelid tumors, that is, 7 sebaceous carcinoma, 2 squamous cell carcinoma, and 1 basal cell carcinoma, underwent reconstructive surgery. With the switch flap technique, the defects resulting from tumor excision were completely covered in all cases. The mean of defect widths after tumor excision (A) was 18.8 mm (range, 15–25 mm), the mean of widths of switch flaps (B) was 13.3 mm (range, 8–22 mm), and the mean of B/A ratios was 0.69 (range, 0.5–0.88). When the switch flap was divided at 7 to 14 days, there was no flap loss, trichiasis, or corneal ulcer. CONCLUSION: Our protocol managed to make flaps with a B/A ratio of 0.5–0.7, and the flaps were divided at 7 to 14 days after surgery, the timing of which was much earlier than in the conventional method, lessening the possibility of complications.