Successful management of osteoradionecrotic precoccygeal defect with the free latissimus dorsi muscle flap: Case report and literature review

Perineal wound complications following abdominoperineal resection (APR) are still frequent and most troublesome complications. We report the case of a 79‐year‐old male found to have the huge precoccygeal defect with infection after APR for rectal carcinoma. Before surgery, the patient received a complete course of chemoradiation therapy to treat for downgrade staging of the rectal malignancy. Extensive debridement of the perianal wound was performed for three times, followed by perianal reconstruction and packing and augmentation of the precoccygeal dead space with free latissimus dorsi (LD) muscle flap. Although persisted wound infection was still observed after reconstruction, the patient still led a good result after one time of further debridement and split‐thickness skin graft. We selected free LD muscle flap to fill and seal off the large pelvic dead space without the needs to change the jackknife position of the patient after debridement. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case reported in the literature with the radiation‐associated perianal wound infection after APR reconstructed successfully by free LD muscle flap. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. Microsurgery, 2011.