[The thoracodorsal skin flap. Anatomy and clinical applications (author's transl)]

The authors remind of the interest of the thoracodorsal flap among the free flaps and of the armpit as donor site. Two vast reliable and trustworthy skin flaps, with varying thickness, can fairly easily be taken at this level: - the first one, based on the cutaneous branch of the thoracodorsal artery, is a flat skin flap essentially cutaneous, specially convenient for the face because of its tissue colour, the thinness of the skin and its having no hair; - the second one, centered on the thoracodorsal muscle ending or artery of the latissimus dorsi muscle, allows to cut off a musculocutaneous flap that can take away, if necessary, the quasi-totality of the latissimus dorsi muscle. They describe the anatomical observations on twenty armpits dissected on cadavers and underline length, size and constancy of these vascular pedicles. They present three clinical applications which are representative of the most favorable indications of the thoracodorsal flap.