Repair of a large soft tissue defect in the leg with cross-leg bridge free transfer of a latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flap: a case report

Abstract

【Abstract】A 48-year-old man sustained a traffic accident injury to his left leg. It was an open fracture of the left tibia and fibula accompanied by a large soft tissue de-fect (27 cm×7 cm). Doppler examination revealed the poste-rior tibial artery was occluded due to thrombosis. Three weeks after injury, the latissimus dors myocutaneous flap was elevated with a T-shaped vascular pedicle and was in-terposed between the two vascular ends of the posterior tibial vessel of the contralateral leg. Two end to end anasto-moses were performed between the two vascular ends of the posterior tibial vessel of the contralateral leg and the latissimus dors myocutaneous flap’s T-shaped vascular pedicle. The latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flap was used for repair of a large soft tissue defect of the left leg. The vascular pedicle was cut off after 28 days and the flap sur-vived completely. After 3-years’ follow-up postoperatively, a good contour was confirmed at the recipient area. The right tibia and fibula fractures were confirmed healing radiologically. The posterior tibial artery of contralateral leg was demonstrated patent by clinical and Doppler examinations. Key words: Surgical flaps; Leg injuries; Soft tissue injuries; Wound healing