Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 27, 2025
Donor Posterior Atrial Flap Rotation for Left Atrial Cuff Reconstruction in Lung Transplantation
Published on: October 11, 2024
Comparison of outcomes following pedicled and free flap transfers for the defect after shoulder sarcoma resection
Ryo Karakawa1, Hidehiko Yoshimatsu1, Yuma Fuse1
1Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Cancer Institute Hospital of the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, 3-8-31 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-8550, Japan.
Background:
Reconstruction after wide resection of a sarcoma arising in the shoulder girdle is challenging, and little evidence is available to compare short-term outcomes between pedicled-flap and free-flap reconstruction.
Patients And Methods:
Thirty-eight patients undergoing immediate reconstruction surgery with only a pedicled-flap (n = 18) and with a free-flap (n = 20) after sarcoma resection on the shoulder girdle between July 2005 and March 2022 were identified. One-to-one propensity score matching was performed to compare the postoperative complications.
Results:
Transferred flaps survived completely in 20 cases in the free-flap group. In the all-patient analysis of binary outcomes, the occurrences of total complications, takebacks, total flap complications, and flap dehiscence were higher in the pedicled-flap group than in the free-flap group. The propensity score-matched analysis showed the occurrence of total complications was significantly higher in the pedicled-flap group than the free-flap group (53.8% vs. 7.7%, p = 0.03). In the propensity score-matched analysis of continuous outcomes, the pedicled-flap group demonstrated a shorter operation time than the free-flap group (279 vs. 381 min, p = 0.05).
Conclusions:
This clinical study demonstrated the feasibility and reliability of a free-flap transfer for the defect after wide resection of a sarcoma arising in the shoulder girdle.
