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©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Mar 6, 2023; 11(7): 1434-1441
Published online Mar 6, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i7.1434
Published online Mar 6, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i7.1434
Reconstruction surgery in head and neck cancer patients amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: Current practice and lessons for the future
Daniele Lizambri, Department of Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta 81100, Italy
Andrea Giacalone, Department of Industrial Engineering, Technologies for Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome 00133, Italy
Pritik A Shah, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Karnataka 560002, India
Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone, Department of Research Analytics, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai 600077, India
Author contributions: Lizambri D and Giacalone A helped with study conception and design, and writing of the manuscript; Shah PA helped with the creation of images and content; Tovani-Palone MR helped in writing the original draft, critical review, and editing the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Marcos Roberto Tovani-Palone, PhD, Academic Research, Department of Research Analytics, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, 162, Poonamallee High Rd, Velappanchavadi, Chennai 600077, India. marcos_palone@hotmail.com
Received: September 29, 2022
Peer-review started: September 29, 2022
First decision: November 25, 2022
Revised: December 20, 2022
Accepted: February 13, 2023
Article in press: February 13, 2023
Published online: March 6, 2023
Peer-review started: September 29, 2022
First decision: November 25, 2022
Revised: December 20, 2022
Accepted: February 13, 2023
Article in press: February 13, 2023
Published online: March 6, 2023
Core Tip
Core Tip: Reconstruction with a locoregional head and neck flap is a successful and reliable procedure, important in the treatment of head and neck cancer. Locoregional flaps have been reassessed during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, a period in which health care has been heavily impacted. The pandemic has been a trigger for reflection and learning in healthcare, as well as for accelerating scientific progress. However, many deficiencies in the healthcare provision have been exposed, which should redirect the goals in this field to optimize medical work as much as possible without negative repercussions on the outcomes.