Harvest technique for pedicled transposition of latissimus dorsi muscle: an old trade revisited

Transposition of extrathoracic muscle flaps has been the cornerstone of treatment of a number of complex intrathoracic pathologies such as bronchopleural fistulas and residual infected pleural spaces. We present a simple step-wise technique for preservation and harvesting of the most common muscle flap employed by thoracic surgeons, namely latissimus dorsi, just prior to performing a standard posterolateral thoracotomy. Since 2004, we have successfully utilized pedicled latissimus muscle as our preferred prophylactic flap against development of postoperative bronchopleural fistulas or recurrent empyemas. This technique should be part of every thoracic surgeon's surgical armamentarium.