Bilateral superior epigastric pedicle perforator flaps for total chest wall coverage.
The superior epigastric artery (SEA), a terminal branch of the internal mammary artery, is analogous to the deep inferior epigastric artery (DIEA) in that it supplies a large number of perforators that are clustered together. This allows tissue from the superior abdomen to be used as a pedicled flap for reconstruction. A reliable and well-perfused pedicled flap can be based on this cluster of perforators, hence the term 'pedicle cluster perforator flap'. We present a case of a patient with recurrent angiosarcoma, who required total anterior chest wall reconstruction. This was achieved using bilateral pedicled SEA perforator flaps for complete coverage. To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of bilateral pedicled perforator flap reconstruction for complete chest wall reconstruction.
Department of Plastic Surgery, UT Southwestern Medical Center, 1801 Inwood Dr., Dallas, TX 75392, USA.
Georgette
G
Oni
Rohit
R
Sharma
Roshni
R
Rao
Jacob
J
Unger
Michel
M
Saint-Cyr
D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006394:Hemangiosarcoma / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008408:Mastectomy; D013524:Surgical Flaps / Q000098:blood supply*; D013899:Thoracic Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D035441:Thoracic Wall / Q000601:surgery*