Sacred Heart Hospital Describes Findings in Tissue Transplants (The extended latissimus dorsi-serratus anterior chimeric local free flap for salvage of the complicated posterolateral thoractomy incision)

2019 DEC 30 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at AIDS Daily -- Investigators publish new report on Transplant Medicine - Tissue Transplants. According to news reporting from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, by NewsRx editors, the research stated, “Composite chest wall reconstruction, following the assurance of chest wall stability, often requires well-vascularized soft tissue coverage with flaps to insure adequate wound healing. Unfortunately, prior surgical approaches such as the posterolateral thoractomy incision or extensive wound breakdown may impede the availability of local or regional choices.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Sacred Heart Hospital, “A free flap would then be a reasonable option, but in the unstable patient a new donor site is unreasonable. Instead, the otherwise inadequate muscle remnants often transected by the usual thoracotomy incision can be extended by microvascular grafts to provide the necessary reach to the defect. The ipsilateral cephalic latissimus dorsi and/or serratus anterior muscle remnants following their transection by a posterolateral thoractomy incision can be simultaneously raised as a chimeric flap pedicled in common by the thoracodorsal vessels. The distance the pedicle must be extended to reach the defect requiring coverage is measured, and a vascular graft from the descending branch of the lateral circumflex femoral vessels of the same length is harvested. The thoracodorsal vessels are divided, the vascular graft inserted and anastomosed end-to-end to the cut ends of the former, and then the flap can be stretched the required distance for insetting. A case example of use of the ipsilateral latissimus dorsi-serratus anterior muscle remnants used after extension with arterial and venous grafts to the thoracodorsal vessels as the recipient site is presented with successful salvage of a life-threatening posteriolateral thoractomy wound dehiscence. Transection of muscles from a posterolateral thoracotomy incision does not preclude their use as flaps in extenuating circumstances.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Their pedicle can be extended using vascular grafts and microvascular techniques in a sense to create a local free flap to provide another solution to a challenging problem.”

For more information on this research see: The extended latissimus dorsi-serratus anterior chimeric local free flap for salvage of the complicated posterolateral thoractomy incision. Injury, 2019;50 Suppl 5():S8-S10. Injury can be contacted at: Elsevier Sci LTD, the Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, Oxon, England. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Injury - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/injury/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting G.G. Hallock, Division of Plastic Surgery, Sacred Heart Hospital, Allentown, Pennsylvania, St. Luke’s Hospital, 1230 S Cedar Crest Blvd, Suite 306, Allentown, Bethlehem, PA, United States.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2019.10.038. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Publisher contact information for the journal Injury is: Elsevier Sci LTD, the Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, Oxon, England.

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