title: Reconstruction of the abdominal wall with a latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap: a case of a massive abdominal wall metastasis from a cervical cancer requiring palliative resection.
abstract: A 49-year-old woman presented with a huge abdominal mass. At laparotomy, a 36-cm diameter semisolid, semicystic mass from the abdominal wall was removed. The peritoneal defect was covered by a mesh and a free latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flap. Histology showed a poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma consistent with metastatic tumor from a cervical primary. Surgery has a finite palliative role to extirpate a tumor mass of this size if reconstruction and some form of closure can be achieved.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynaecological Oncology, Royal Marsden Hospital, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Neven
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Shepherd
authors.forename: K F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Tham
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Breach
mesh_terms: D000009:Abdominal Muscles / Q000601:surgery*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009135:Muscular Diseases / Q000601:surgery; D010166:Palliative Care; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery*; D013524:Surgical Flaps / Q000379:methods*; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology