A Review of Common Local Flaps for Coverage of Skin Defects of the Nose: Clinical Experience in Ten Cases

Abstract

The nose is considered an important structure in the face from both the cosmetic and functional point of view. It is the most projecting part in the face; hence any disfigurement is obvious and cannot be hidden. Skin defects may occur due to many reasons including post traumatic and post ablative following excision of skin cancer. There are various methods for coverage according to the reconstructive ladder. However, due to its importance, local flaps are always preferable to skin grafts as this produces like with like replacement including good padding with well vascularized tissue, pliable coverage, sensate tissue with better contouring, texture and color matching when compared to skin grafting. In this paper, although many flaps are described in literature, but most defects of the nose can be best closed by three common flaps used in this area. These flaps are reviewed including forehead flap, nasolabial flap and bilobed flap with the authors' personal experience in this field. Ten cases were operated upon by the authors in Kasr Al-Aini Hospital between February 2016 to July 2016 and followed-up for the following six months. All these flaps survived with a satisfactory patient outcome in most patients.