OR / Prep · Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery · open
You’re scrubbing into
Local flap reconstruction
Why are we operating?
Closing a defect by moving neighbouring skin on its own blood supply, rotation, transposition or advancement, the middle rung of the reconstructive ladder between graft and free tissue.
Indication: Defects too big or too poorly bedded for primary closure or graft, after tumour excision or trauma, where adjacent tissue can be borrowed without new deformity.
The operation in 4 steps
01Planning the flap
02Raising the flap
03Transposition and inset
04Monitoring
Watch it done
How to design a Limberg rhomboid flap
The geometry of the transposition flap that closes a rhomboid defect.
Source: Hand, Plastic, Reconstructive and Nerve Surgery · Watch on YouTubeHow to design a bilobed local flap
The two-lobed rotation flap for nasal tip defects.
Source: Hand, Plastic, Reconstructive and Nerve Surgery · Watch on YouTube
Conceptual teaching for learners preparing to observe and assist under supervision, not operative instructions. Five minutes from now you should know why this operation exists, what its shape is, and which structures it is designed not to injure.