An introduction to the chimeric deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEAP)-rectus abdominis muscle flap

A muscle perforator flap is a unique form of fasciocutaneous flap whose circulation is derived from musculocutaneous perforators, but without including any muscle. This anatomic relationship intuitively should readily allow the formation of branch-based chimeric or polyflaps consisting of a cutaneous perforator flap and its corresponding muscle as a combined flap, both ultimately supplied by a common source vessel. Many versions of the rectus abdominis musculocutaneous flap based on the deep inferior epigastric vessels are well known, but formation of a chimeric flap consisting of its component parts has heretofore not been reported. This treatise is intended primarily to provide an anatomic description that introduces the deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEAP)-rectus abdominis muscle chimeric flap, with a clinical example that mainly demonstrated its usefulness to be the aesthetic advantage of a concomitant abdominoplasty.