Reconstruction of Soft Tissue Defects with Regional Flaps

Regional flaps are pedicle flaps obtained from anatomical regions close to the defect to be constructed. Their advantages over pedicle flaps are similarity with the skin adjacent to the defect (color, texture, and hair), the speed with which they can be harvested, and the lower cost, lower comorbidity, and lower personnel and infrastructure requirements. Their disadvantages are their limited size, limited distance between the donor site and the receptor site, and lower predictability when preparing compound flaps with bone. Regional flaps can sometimes be combined with microvascular free flaps for the reconstruction of complex defects.