[Surgical treatment of suppurative axillary hidradenitis: value of a musculocutaneous island flap of the latissimus dorsi. Apropos of 3 cases]

Abstract

We report our experience of the surgical management of severe, extensive, medically intractable axillary Hidradenitis suppurativa in three male patients. Under general anaesthesia, all patients underwent large, deep and full excision of the disease prone areas, i. e. zones of apocrine sweat gland distribution and not only of the skin involved at the time of surgery, for the best possible prevention of recurrence. The operation was bilateral in two patients and unilateral in one. In all cases closure was achieved using the latissimus dorsi flap technique. In the two patients with bilateral lesions surgery was carried out in two steps at about two months' interval. At present, after a follow-up of about two years, none of the patients have relapsed and their shoulder mobility is perfectly preserved with a normal abduction allowed by the total absence of axillary scar contracture. The latissimus dorsi flap technique consists of transplanting into the recipient's axillary defect the pedicellated lateral margin of the latissimus dorsi muscle with (2 patients) or without (1 patient) a cover of attached skin palette vascularized by the underlying muscle tissue. Mainly used hitherto for reconstructive mammary surgery, this technique perfectly fits axillary diseases, such as Hidradenitis suppurativa, which can only be cured by creating wide surgical skin defects. It is particularly reliable: covering of the defect is easy and the immediate muscle interposition effectively protects the otherwise widely exposed neurovascular pedicle. The need for a skin palette cover associated with the latissimus dorsi flap is discussed.