Dg. Pennington et al., MICROVASCULAR AUGMENTATION OF THE BLOOD-SUPPLY OF THE CONTRALATERAL SIDE OF THE FREE TRANSVERSE RECTUS-ABDOMINIS MUSCULOCUTANEOUS FLAP, Annals of plastic surgery, 31(2), 1993, pp. 123-127
The free transverse rectus abdominis musculocutaneous (TRAM) flap is a
recognized, reliable method of breast reconstruction after mastectomy
. However, blood supply to the contralateral side of both the free and
pedicled TRAM flap, especially in zone four, is often precarious. In
patients with previous midline abdominal scars or with significant rec
tus divarication, both zones three and four are at risk of necrosis. V
arious techniques have been described to improve the reliability of th
e blood supply to the contralateral tissue in the pedicled TRAM flap,
including prior delay and microvascular supplementation. We describe a
new technique for augmentation of the blood supply of the contralater
al side by microvascular anastomosis of the distal end of the ipsilate
ral deep inferior epigastric vessels to a contralateral periumbilical
perforator of the opposite side. This technique produces reliable surv
ival of contralateral tissue in zones three and four, even in the pres
ence of midline scars, with minimal damage to the contralateral rectus
muscle. The technique is also beneficial where large bulk of tissue i
s needed, such as in radical mastectomy patients, or when abdominal ti
ssue is thin but the normal breast is large. Five patients in a series
of 50 free TRAM flaps have been treated with the technique and the re
sults are compared with other techniques.