2.1 | Patient enrollment
This retrospective study was approved by the authors’ institutional review board (Approval No. 2021-07-128). Forty patients were enrolled from April to December 2019, after surgery for oral cavity cancer by a single experienced surgeon. Patients were classified into two groups: the barbed suture (n = 27) and interrupt suture (n = 13) groups according to method and material of wound closure. We used both in the early study period, but the barbed suture had been mainly used because the time sparing effect of the barbed suture was prominent. Clinical variables were age, sex, tumor location, type of surgery, suture site, T stage, tumor size, defect size, primary vs. salvage treatment, and reconstruction method.