• Mengqing Zang, Shan Zhu, Bin Song, Ji Jin, Donghong Liu, Qiang Ding, and Yuanbo Liu.
• Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Plastic Surgery Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Ba-Da-Chu Road, 33(#), Beijing 100144, China.
• Burns. 2012 Sep 1;38(6):917-23.

AbstractThe pedicled paraumbilical flap is a reliable tissue transfer for hand and forearm reconstruction. However, its size, pedicle length and/or thickness limit its application in resurfacing of extensive defects of the upper limb. To conquer those limitations, this flap was pre-expanded for 10-24 weeks prior to transfer in 25 patients and used as a pedicle flap to cover upper extremity defects. Extensive defects of upper limb were reconstructed by the pre-expanded paraumbilical flaps. The flaps ranged in size from 10 cm × 8 cm to 30 cm × 14 cm. The donor sites were closed directly in all cases. All flaps survived, but two had partial flap necrosis due to venous congestion or infection. With pre-transfer expansion, a large, well-perfused abdominal pedicle flap can be raised and transferred based on the paraumbilical perforators. This pre-expanded flap might be useful in the patients who have the extensive upper limb defects and sufficient time to allow tissue expansion.Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

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