FREE MEDIAL THIGH PERFORATOR-BASED FLAPS - NEW DEFINITION OF THE PEDICLE VESSELS AND VERSATILE APPLICATION

The medial thigh flap is a perforator-based flap nourished with septoc utaneous or muscle perforators originating from the femoral vessels, T o date, 8 patients have been repaired with this flap and extended or c onnected flaps including this flap: 4 patients with lower leg defects and 4 patients with intraoral and neck defects, The advantages of this flap are (1) several pedicle perforators exist for this flap, which m akes possible duplicated vascular anastomoses to establish reliable ci rculation of the transferred flap; (2) the flap can be extended or con nected to other neighboring flaps in the anterior thigh, so that exten sively wide defects can be closed in one stage; (3) the great saphenou s vein can be simultaneously used as a vein graft or for venous draina ge for the flap; (4) the anterior branch of the femoral nerve can be u sed for sensory potential; and (5) there is minimum morbidity of the d onor defect and a large dominant vessel for the leg can be preserved, The suitable indications for this flap are defects after removal of sk in cancer in the foot or lower leg and wide defects after resection of head and neck cancer, which can be reconstructed with the flap connec ted to neighboring skin flaps, The disadvantages of this flap are that it has a small, short vascular pedicle and the bulkiness of the flap' s fatty tissue often requires thinning.