Reconstruction is necessary for chest wall defects from wide resection of malignant tumors. As the resection time is long, the time required for reconstruction must be as short as possible. We focused the time of reconstruction for large chest wall defects using a pedicled latissimus dorsi flap.
We report four cases of pedicled latissimus dorsi flaps for chest wall defects. The clinical course and findings are presented. Case 1 was for a defect after resection of chondrosarcoma in a 50-year-old man. Case 2 was for a defect after resection of a recurrent malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor in a 73-year-old man. Case 3 was for a defect after resection of myxofibrosarcoma in a 70-year-old man. Case 4 was for a defect after resection of leiomyosarcoma in a 66-year-old man. The mean time of resection was 349.8 min and the size of defects was 197.8 cm2 on average. All flaps survived and no skin graft was required for the donor site.
We conclude that pedicled latissimus dorsi flaps are useful for large chest wall defects and the time of reconstruction is shorter using these flaps. Moreover, skin grafting was not needed at donor sites in our cases.
