Abstract
Introduction Despite successful breast reconstruction with oversized latissimus dorsi muscle flap
after breast-conserving surgery for breast cancer, esthetic problems continue to exist
due to flap shrinkage. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the objective volume
change of pedicled latissimus dorsi muscle flap when it is used in breast reconstruction.
Methods Patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a breast-conserving
surgery with immediate breast reconstruction with pedicled latissimus dorsi myocutaneous
flap between October 2009 and November 2015 were studied. Eleven patients who were
followed up for more than 1 year after operation were included in the study. We evaluated
the volume of muscle portion of the latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flap with computed
tomography (CT) scan. We analyzed the rate of volume change of the latissimus dorsi
muscle every year until 5 years after the operation.
Result The latissimus dorsi muscle flaps of all 11 patients showed a volume decrease over
time. The rate of volume change of the latissimus dorsi muscle flaps decreased 8.04%
in the first year, 6.36% in the second year, 5.05% in the third year, 2.88% in the
fourth year, and 2.56% in the fifth year after operation in average.
Conclusion This research shows the possibility of objectively evaluating the volume change of
pedicled latissimus dorsi muscle flaps after breast reconstruction. The findings will
be helpful in designing the size of the flaps to use on defects after breast-conserving
surgery.
Keywords
volume change - pedicled latissimus dorsi muscle flap - partial breast reconstruction
