Upper Arm (Tagliacozzi) Skin Flap



Upper Arm (Tagliacozzi) Skin Flap


B. C. MENDELSON

J. K. MASSON





The Tagliacozzi flap serves as a symbol in the tradition of plastic surgery. Tagliacozzi’s portrait is on the logo of the American Board of Plastic Surgery, and his flap is centered in the emblem of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons. The only major advance in the use of this flap since it was first reported by Gaspare Tagliacozzi in 1597 (1, 2) has been the introduction of anesthesia. Several variations of this pedicled arm flap have been described (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).




ANATOMY

There is an arterial axis in the upper arm between the deltoid branches of the thoracoacromial artery and the recurrent branches of the radial and ulnar arteries of the elbow (10). On this basis, the Tagliacozzi flap may be partly an arterialized rather than a true random-pattern tubed pedicle flap. This may account for its good vascularity compared to other distant pedicle flaps, e.g., clavicular. The classically located flap ignores the adjacent arterialized skin of the lateral arm used in the cervicohumeral flap (see Chapter 134).

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Jun 26, 2016 | Posted by in General Surgery | Comments Off on Upper Arm (Tagliacozzi) Skin Flap

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