INTRODUCTION The definition of a scar in Webster’s dictionary is a “mark left after injured tissue has healed.” Any full-thickness injury of the skin, planned or unplanned, will leave a scar. It is the body’s way of repairing itself. Although…
Videos available online INTRODUCTION Over the last decade, reconstruction of the nose has reached a high level of sophistication with enhancement of aesthetic results. This has been achieved by emphasizing the necessity of replacing surgically ablated tissue with like tissue.…
INTRODUCTION The optimal aesthetic reconstruction using a local cutaneous flap is dependent on the size of the cutaneous defect and the orientation of the flap in relationship to relaxed skin tension lines (RSTLs). The effects on surrounding facial structures from…
Videos available online INTRODUCTION Median forehead flaps were first described in an Indian medical treatise, the Sushruta Samita, in approximately 700 BCE. The operation was performed by members of a caste of potters known as the Koomas . The need…
Videos available online INTRODUCTION The melolabial crease delineates the cheek from the caudal nose and from the upper and lower lips. It is created by the insertion of the superficial muscular aponeurotic system (SMAS) into the skin at the junction…
Videos available online INTRODUCTION The original design of the bilobe flap is attributed to Esser, who described its use in 1918 for reconstruction of nasal tip defects. Ziminy and others expanded the use of the flap to reconstruct defects on…
INTRODUCTION Most local cutaneous flaps used in the head and neck have some component of advancement during movement of the flap to the recipient site. An example is the paramedian interpolated forehead flap. Although this flap is classified as pivotal,…
Videos available online INTRODUCTION In contrast to rotation flaps, which have a curvilinear configuration, transposition flaps have a linear configuration. Both are pivotal flaps moving about a pivotal point. Both flaps develop standing cutaneous deformities (SCDs) at their bases and…
INTRODUCTION Rotation flaps are pivotal flaps with a curvilinear configuration. By necessity they must be designed immediately adjacent to the defect. Thus a border of the defect becomes the advancing border of the skin flap. Although useful in many clinical…
Videos available online INTRODUCTION The author defines a local cutaneous flap as an area of skin and subcutaneous tissue with a direct vascular supply that is transferred from its in situ position to a site located immediately adjacent to or…