A Case of Skin Tube Carcinoma Developing after Reconstructive Surgery for Hypopharyngeal Carcinoma

Shin-ichi Sasaki, Michihiko Kitamura, Hiroyuki Suzuki, Syuichi Kamata, Reijiro Saito, Kousei Taguchi, Jun-ichi Ogawa

Second Department of Surgery, Akita University School of Medicine

A 73-year-old man underwent pharyngolaryngoesophagectomy for hypopharyngeal carcinoma after 60 Gy irradiation at the age of 55. A skin tube which was made of a delto-pectoral skin flap was used for reconstruction of the alimentary tract. Also he underwent colectomy because of colonic carcinoma at the age of 67. Eighteen years after the first operation, squamous cell carcinoma that developed in the skin tube circumferentialy caused dysphagia. Then the skin tube was resected and a free jejunal graft was transplanted for reconstruction between the pharynx and the thoracic esophagus. The tumor showed multiple polypoid lesions as the other reports represent papillomas. The cause of such of the carcinogenesis is chronic inflammation caused by chemical and mechanical irritation of the skin tube by passage of food and saliva. Patients with alimentary reconstruction by skin tubes should be observed carefully for decades.

Key words
cancer of the skin tube, surgical skin flap, resection of hypopharynx

Reprint requests
Shin-ichi Sasaki Second Department of Surgery, Akita University School of Medicine
1-1-1 Hondo, Akita, 010-8543 JAPAN

Accepted
July 22, 1998

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