Uterine liposarcoma invading abdominal wall and inguinal region. Immediate reconstruction using a pedicled anterolateral thigh flap

The anterolateral thigh flap is a particular flap of the vastus lateralis musculocutaneous flap (perforator flap). This flap was used as a pedicled flap to reconstruct the abdominal wall and to cover the inguinal region following the resection of a voluminous tumor of the womb invading the abdominal wall, the femoral vessels and the skin. The flap included a large facial paddle nourishing a skin island and a little muscle paddle including the perforator vessel. This medially positioned facial paddle allowed to increase the area of useful flap. So it was possible to reconstruct a 10x15 cm abdominal wall defect, and to cover the vascular decking in inguinal region with this only flap. In spite of the harvesting of a small muscular paddle of vastus lateralis (with conservation of the motor nerve) the function of thigh extension has been preserved. Besides the subtlety described to increase the "solid" surface of the fragment, it seems that the anterolateral thigh flap is perfectly useful to cover defects of soft tissues in inguinal region after vascular surgery, indication which was not reported to our knowledge in spite of the high frequency of these losses defects.