Background: An extralevator abdominoperineal excision can leave a wide perineal wound. Such large wounds are prone to infection and perineal herniation, especially in patients undergoing long courses of chemo/radiotherapy. The choice of wound closure is a challenge to most surgeons. Different approaches to the perineal repair exist, varying from primary or mesh closure to myocutaneous flaps. Each technique has advantages, but also complications. Rectus abdominis muscle flaps are very successful in reducing complications of perineal wound breakdown and hernia formation, but they require an open large wound in the abdomen or laparotomy. We describe a laparoscopic surgical technique which achieves harvesting a rectus abdominis muscle flap for perineal closure while it avoids making a large abdominal laparotomy wound.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.