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Anatomical variation of the accessory thoracodorsal artery as a direct cutaneous perforator
Author(s) -
Hwang Kyu Tae,
Kim Sang Wha,
Kim Youn Hwan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
clinical anatomy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.667
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1098-2353
pISSN - 0897-3806
DOI - 10.1002/ca.22147
Subject(s) - medicine , thoracodorsal artery , variation (astronomy) , perforator flaps , anatomy , surgery , free flap , physics , astrophysics
The thoracodorsal artery perforator flap is a versatile flap for the reconstruction of various soft tissue defects. Several anatomical variations of thoracodorsal artery have been described and an “accessory thoracodorsal artery” which has a separate and direct origin from the axillary artery has been reported. In this report, we describe a very unusual direct cutaneous perforator, which ran in a subfascial course above the latissimus dorsi muscle and was found to originate directly from the axillary artery. Based on these findings, surgeons should be aware of the possible existence of this unusual anatomical variation during surgery to avoid missing this perforator. Clin. Anat. 26:1024–1027, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.