[Secondary reconstruction of stumps above the elbow. Five cases]

The authors report a serie of five patients with five stumps above the elbow who needed a secondary reconstruction to allow or facilitate a prosthesis. They used in the first case an expansion of the latissimus dorsi flap and of the axillary and prepectoral region in order to free the stump of the humerus sutured on the thorax. In the second case, a free parascapular flap covered an unstable scar of the clavicula after a scapulothoracic amputation. In the third case, the transfer of a free flap of fibula associated with a pedicled latissimus dorsi flap had allowed the elongation of the stump of the humerus. In the two last cases, a latissimus dorsi flap pedicled in one and free in the second one had allowed to preserved the length of the humerus for prosthesis. The technical choices are eclectic and different in every case. The purpose is to obtain an efficient trophicity and a thickness that can support the prosthesis and if possible a stump long enough to improve the adaptation of the prosthesis. The five operated patients were able to be apparated, reducing in this way their daily functional difficulties.