Relative Donor-Site Morbidity of Muscle and Fascial Flaps

Abstract

Accusations of excessive donor-site morbidity as an unavoidable sequela of fasciocutaneous flaps has negatively prejudiced this option for coverage of adjacent defects such that a muscle flap, if available, would instead be preferable even at the risk of loss of marginally expendable function. Our entire experience with 147 juxtaposed muscle-type and 122 fascia-type flaps was analyzed to confirm instead that actual donor-site morbidity was extremely uncommon for either type. Overall, there were 20 (14 percent) complications of the donor site of muscle flaps and 17 (14 percent) for fascial flaps, with only 4 (3 percent) major complications in each group. This almost minuscule incidence of major morbidity was about five times less than the rate of major complications involving the flaps themselves (14 percent for muscle and 15 percent for fascial flaps). Unless aesthetic considerations are of paramount importance, at least from a functional standpoint, no difference in donor-site complications could be discerned between these two disparate flap types. However, the skin-grafted donor site of the fasciocutaneous flap results in a significant cosmetic disadvantage similar to that of a large musculocutaneous flap.