Contribution of expanding cutaneous prostheses to harvesting scalp flaps. Application to the Dufourmentel flap
Mimoun, M.; Baux, S.; Kirsch, J.M.; Zumer, L.; Dubert, T.
Annales de Chirurgie Plastique et Esthetique 32(4): 386-389
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0294-1260 PMID: 2450517 Document Number: 304765
Expanding cutaneous prostheses mark a remarkable turning in hair-covered skin surgery. Its poor plasticity always made it necessary to produce large flaps to cover small losses of substance. This reputation should completely disappear: hair-covered skin appears to be the ideal area to apply these prostheses which are capable of undreamed of expansions. The Dufourmentel flap, well known for the reconstruction of pilous areas of the face, best illustrates these facts. The large smooth area which should have entailed its removal was able to be closed per primam with the aid of the expanding cutaneous prosthesis. This extraordinary quality of the hair-covered skin on the prosthesis to expand has lead us to describe it as a skin factory. Of course this new concept revolutionizes all smooth area surgery concerning the sequelae of traumas or burns, and also all esthetic surgery for baldness.