Experience with 60 inferior rectus abdominis flaps.

We report on our experience with the inferior rectus abdominis flap. Since 1984, 60 patients have been operated on with this technique. The inferior rectus abdominis flap was used as a free flap, island flap or pedicle flap (inferiorly based). Pure muscle flaps served to fill bone defects in patients with chronic osteomyelitis or as a biologic cover of infected vascular prostheses following multiple vascular surgery in the groin. The myocutaneous and fasciocutaneous rectus flaps served to cover soft tissue defects of the upper and lower extremities after accidents, degloving and radical tumour surgery. We present data from our collective patients to document the benefits of the inferior rectus abdominis flap and recommend this technique as a safe surgical modality to manage large-surface soft tissue defects.