Chest Wall Reconstruction with Breast Flap

Abstract

Chest wall defects after ablative surgery for cancer, trauma, infection, or radiation-related ulcer present a challenging problem for the plastic surgeon. The pectoralis major, latissimus, dorsi, external oblique, rectus abdominis, and trapezius muscles have been utilized. The breast flap is a useful method in a woman after the surgical treatment of osteoradionecrosis of the chest wall or recurrent breast cancer. We performed contralateral breast flap to repair the surgical defects in 6 patients with local breast cancer recurrences or radiation ulcers. The defects of these patients were tumor recurrence and radionecrosis of irradiated tissue. The treatment consisted of aggressive debridements of all involved tissue including underlying bone or cartilage if necessary. Then we perform the breast flap for reconstruction. In all but one patient, who was left with a small chronic granulating nonhealing wound. All flaps survived completely. In conclusion, this technique is suitable especially for patients with large, healthy breasts and for relatively poor patients.