Byline: Amish. Gohil, Subhash. Sahu, Shashank. Lamba, Ashish. Gupta
Sir,
Latissimus dorsi (LD) is one of the most commonly used muscles for coverage of moderate-to-large-sized defects post-tumour excision or trauma.
Seroma (21%-79%) is the most common donor site complication after LD muscle harvest.[1] Other common complications include haematoma, skin margin necrosis and contour deformity.[2] Rarely, brachial plexus injury and lumbar hernia are also reported.
Pneumothorax following LD harvest is a potential and probably an underreported complication.[2],[3] We report two patients who developed pneumothorax after raising the flap. Both patients sustained Gustilo-Anderson type III B lower limb fracture. There were no pre-operative symptoms or signs suggestive of chest trauma in either of them. They underwent debridement, skeletal stabilisation with external fixator and microvascular LD flap cover. LD muscle was raised in a standard...