[Clinical application of soft-tissue flap with an intercostal vascular pedicle from the chest wall in the trachea surgery].

Between 1976 and 1995, 11 cases of side-wall defect repairment or circumferential reconstruction of trachea were performed using chest-wall tissue flap with an intercostal vascular pedicle. The indications were benign or malignant tumors of the tracheal side wall, lung cancers of the right upper lobe involving the side wall of the trachea and/or carina. The transverse diameter of the tracheal defect after removing the tumor was less than half of the tracheal circumference. Furthermore, we foun it feasible to reconstruct the trachea by using a tissue tube created by wrapping a chest-wall tissue flap over a temporary stent in case of long-segment tracheal resection of tracheal tumor or benign stenosis where. The defect was too long to be repaired by end-to-end anastomosis. The surgical technique & instructions were described.