EAST Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has successfully treated several patients with complex head, neck and oral cancers through ground-breaking microsurgery over the last year.

Over 100 patients are diagnosed with oral cancer each year in East Lancashire and on average 75 per cent of these need major reconstructive surgery once the cancer has been removed.

In the past, residents have had to travel out of the county to undergo extensive surgery, but two new experienced head and neck surgeons, Leo Vassiliou and Panos Kyzas, were appointed in May 2020 and have been offering the surgery much closer to home.

The microsurgery, known as ‘free flap microsurgery’, helps to reconstruct a patient’s face once a cancer has been removed, which often leaves a large hole in the patient’s mouth.

Mr Vassiliou said: “I’m so pleased we are now able to offer this procedure to our patients closer to home, rather than them travelling out of the area for their surgery as this helps massively with their recovery.

“The joining of the vessels is a highly complex and labour-intensive procedure that requires many hours in the operating theatre.

“Patients recover in the intensive care unit for two to three days before being moved onto a specialist head and neck ward for two weeks.”

The procedure involves the transfer of tissue from any part of the patient’s body with an intact blood supply through its vessel, which is then re-attached to vessels in the neck.

The transferred tissue then regains a blood supply which encourages regrowth where the cancer was removed, allowing for cosmetic and functional repair.

Mr Kyzos said: “This has been an amazing year for us with lots of challenges.”

Over the last 12 months, the two surgeons have successfully treated 75 patients, with a 100 per cent success rate.