Distally Based Sartorius Flap to Cover Knee Joint Defect
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Sunyarn Niempoog1, Yot Tanariyakul1
1Department of Orthopedics, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University, Thailand.
Introduction:
The coverage of soft-tissue defects around the knee joint has many reconstructive techniques depending on the size, location, and depth. We report a case with large soft-tissue defect at anterior knee joint that primary closure cannot be done with successfully used distally based sartorius flap and full-thickness skin graft to cover this defect.
Case Report:
A 30-year-old man had a large skin defect at the knee following a motorcycle accident. The patella tendon and patella were exposed. We use the sartorius muscle flap to cover the wound defect. First, a skin incision was done on the muscle alignment. Then, the sartorius muscle was dissected, and the proximal set of segmental vessels was identified and ligated. Afterward, the sartorius was moved into subcutaneous tunnel and expanded to provide coverage for the wound defect. Finally, we used the full-thickness skin graft to cover over the muscle flap. The flap and graft were survived. The patient could return to work after 1 month after the operation.
Conclusion:
In the case with soft-tissue defects around knee joint, there are many operative techniques. Our case has a large wound at anterior aspect of knee joint. We used the distally based sartorius flap to cover the wound defect. Following the transposition, the sartorius remained viable through out its length, and the patient had full post-operativerecovery.
