Pedicled Breast Flap for Soft Tissue Coverage of a Forearm Blast Injury

This article presents the case of a 35-year-old woman who sustained a shotgun blast injury to the left forearm and chest wall causing significant soft tissue loss of the extensor compartment. The patient suffered a Gustilo IIIB open radial shaft fracture requiring orthopedic stabilization and plastic surgery intervention. As a result, the patient eventually was reconstructed with the use of a pedicled breast flap. Because of the patient’s macromastia and her large forearm wound and morbid obesity, an individualized approach was developed such that a breast flap was designed because of its proximity to the upper extremity. The advantage of this type of reconstruction is a more natural contour to the forearm with minimal donor site morbidity. Before creation of the flap, the patient expressed interest in a reduction mammaplasty because of her symptomatic macromastia. Overall, this was a 2-step operation whereby first the breast flap was created, and then a few weeks later, once the arm healed, the reduction mammaplasty was performed. Other types of flaps for upper extremity reconstruction include the rectus abdominis myocutaneous, transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous, vertical rectus abdominis myocutaneous, groin, and latissumus dorsi. The pedicled breast flap is an innovative approach to upper extremity soft tissue coverage and can be tailored to the specific needs of patients similar to our case presentation.