Background
Breast-cancer surgery and management has evolved over years from radical mastectomies to breast-conserving surgeries, therefore, oncoplastic surgeries traditionally used volume-replacement muscle flaps as latissimus dorsi flaps that cause a lot of back morbidity and seromas the development of vascular surgery and Dopplers with perforator-vessel localization allowed for use of thoracodorsal vessel-perforator flaps in breast reconstruction.
Aim
To assess the use of thoracodorsal-artery perforator flap as oncoplastic procedure regarding intraoperative advantages, the postoperative complications, and benefits over traditional latissimus dorsi flap technique.
Patients and methods
A prospective cohort study was done at Ain Shams University Hospitals, including 20 patients with early-stage breast cancers who underwent breast-conservative mastectomies in the period between November 2019 and December 2021.
Results
In total, 20 patients underwent the procedure, the mean operative time was 200 min, five cases of complications occurred. A single case of mild wound infection, three cases of mild seroma occurred, and a single case of fat necrosis was managed conservatively. No flap loss occurred and all patients were satisfied with their outcome.
Conclusion
The thoracodorsal-artery perforator flap is a safe and reliable flap in reconstructive breast surgery with excellent outcomes as for satisfaction and minimal back morbidity.