Cervicothoracic reconstruction with an anteromedial thigh flap: a novel flap concept.

Abstract

The anteromedial thigh region is more popular as a donor site for skin graft than for flap. It is an extended area whose limits are poorly defined. This explains why flaps vascularised by different source arteries but described under the same name can be found in the literature introducing confusion and misunderstanding. This confusion was introduced since the primary descriptions as Baek presented in 1983 an anteromedial skin flap whose source artery was the superficial femoral artery and Song published a year later, under the same name, a flap vascularised by the innominate descending branch of the lateral circumflex femoral artery. Whatever the name and the source artery, the anteromedial thigh region is an under-exploited region which can be useful in the case of composite and complex defects. Anteromedial thigh flaps, either as pedicled or as a microvascular free-tissue transfer, were used in reconstructive surgery. We here describe a chimeric flap of the anteromedial thigh region and used as a flow-through flap.