-Case Reports-

Frontal Musculocutaneous V-Y Island Flap for Coverage of Forehead Defect with a Dural Exposure after Craniotomy

Hiroshi Mizuno¹, Shunichi Nomoto¹, Nobuaki Ishii¹, Hiko Hyakusoku¹ and Reo Fukuda²

¹Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Regenerative Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Nippon Medical School
²Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Nippon Medical School

We have performed forehead reconstruction with a frontal musculocutaneous V-Y island flap to establish skin and soft-tissue coverage for a cranial bone defect with dural exposure. A 56-year-old woman who had previously undergone craniotomy for aneurysm clipping had a severe infection of the bone flap and subsequently underwent partial resection. The skin defect and the underlying dead space on the dura was successfully covered with a frontal musculocutaneous V-Y island flap without complications. Because this flap shows technical feasibility in harvesting, stable blood supply, functional preservation of frontal muscle, and good texture and color match, it may be an ideal flap for forehead and frontal reconstruction of defects of small or moderate size when primary closure, skin grafting, or transfer of local pedicled flaps or free flaps is impossible.

J Nippon Med Sch 2009; 76: 19-22

Keywords
frontal muscle, forehead reconstruction, craniotomy, flap

Correspondence to
Hiroshi Mizuno, MD, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Nippon Medical School, 1-1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8603, Japan
hmizuno@nms.ac.jp

Received, August 1, 2008
Accepted, October 17, 2008