[Two cases of empyema treated with rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap and muscle flap]

A rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap (RAM flap) has often been useful in breast reconstructions after the surgical therapy for breast cancer, or in other plastic surgeries. However, there have been few reports concerning about its applications for intrathoracic diseases. In this paper, we report two cases of recurrent empyema treated with RAM flap and muscle flap from rectus abdominis. One case is 75-year-old male with right-empyema and bronchial fistula after the thoracoplasty due to lung tuberculosis. The bronchial fistula was successfully closed with muscle flap from the right rectus abdominis. The other is 33-year-old male with left empyema and cutaneous fistula after the hemothorax due to traffic accident. He contracted with MRSA in his thoracic cavity. We resected the fistula and reconstructed his left chest wall with left RAM flap. The muscle flap from rectus abdominis or RAM flap has been very effective for the therapy of bronchial fistula after lung tuberculosis, and for the reconstruction of chest wall.