Malignancies in the head and neck region requires multidiscipl inary treatment and collaboration among head and neck surgery, neurosurgery, an d plastic and reconstructive surgery, as well as oral surgery, pediatrics, rehabilitation, and psychiatry. Head and neck reconstruction in children with the use of a free flap is characterized by small, short blood vessels, a relatively large head, and the need for consideration of disruption of growth disturbance at the donor site of the fla p. The perforator flap has less donor site morbidity and is very useful in children. H owever, children have smaller vessels than adults, requiring supermicrosurgical techniques. Learning of supermicrosurgical techniques should have an important role in increasing the options in free flap transfer in children.

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Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are performed for the treatment of cancer in children, especially leukemia. But, the side effects of these tr eatments are a problem of continuing concern, and improving the patient's quality of life (QOL) following successful treatment remains a challenge. Especially with radiation therapy, disorders of reproductive function are considerable, and cases of inferti lity are extremely high. Currently, research on the cryopreservation of ovarian tissue i s being energetically pursued, but because of factors such as reduction in number of egg cells and physical disruption due to tissue fragmentation, the successful fertiliz ation rate of the thawed ovum has been extremely low. Accordingly, cryopreservation of t he ovaries as an entire organ has been attempted, but this has yielded little success. This study focused on a method for cryopreservation through the application of sup ercooling under a variable magnetic field, and the development of a freezing syste m allowing for an arbitrary change in frequency of magnetic field applied to the specimen. To confirm the interrelation between a variable magnetic field and supercooling, physiological saline solution was frozen under a variable magnetic field, and the pro gress and stabilization of supercooling was verified for magnetic field frequencies from 200 to 200 kHz. Additionally, ovaries were frozen under magnetic field, and histological assessment of the tissue was performed.

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Brain tumors have the highest incidence of childhood solid can cers and they also have the highest mortality rate among childhood cancers. One fa ctor cited for improved prognosis in cancer is improvement in surgical extraction rate, but types of childhood brain tumors are more diverse in comparison to tho se of adults, and it is at present exceedingly difficult for even an experienced pathologist to perform an accurate diagnosis. We have developed a technique for freezing under magnetic field for the purpose of internal organ cryopreservation, and we cond ucted this study after considering that this freezing technique could be useful for ra pid diagnosis utilizing frozen tissue during surgery. Results showed the arrangement of neurons to be in much better order with brain tissue frozen under magnetic field than that which was frozen by liquid nitrogen. For pancreatic tissue, it was found that in sulin staining was clearer for freezing performed under magnetic field than with liquid nitrogen. In short, we found that this technique is not simply for the preservation of tissu e, but has the potential to improve the accuracy of pathological diagnosis and surgical ext raction rate as well as limiting chemotherapy and radiation therapy. This is the principal outcome that will contribute to an improved quality of life (QOL) for childhood cancer patients.

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