Liposuction for Debulking the Pectoralis Major Myocutaneous Flap

Abstract

J. Regan Thomas, MD, and Robert Cueva, MD, of Washington University, St Louis, and Terence Davidson, MD, San Diego, recently reported their results using liposuction to debulk pectoralis major myocutaneous flaps. Their presentation was at the spring meeting of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in Denver. Thomas, who presented the article, stated that one difficulty in using the pectoralis major myocutaneous flap for reconstruction of head and neck defects is the excessive bulk of this particular flap. Because most of this extra soft tissue is subcutaneous fat, the authors devised an experiment to remove the fat by liposuction. Since a major concern was destroying the cutaneous blood supply to the skin paddle, they used five cadavers, in which the brachial arteries were dissected and India ink was infused. Using each cadaver for its own control, staining the skin over the pectoralis major muscle was observed on