Acute tissue expansion by pretaping to achieve elliptical excision and closure for skin tumours and soft tissue tumours

AbstractAn elliptical excision of skin for treating a tumour is technically simple. Our objective was to recruit lateral laxity by stretching the skin prior to surgical excision of a tumour. A retrospective cohort of 20 consecutive patients who were treated with pretaping over a period of 7  years is presented. The surgeon used pretaping in patients with skin and soft tissue tumours where the pinch test for the planned ellipse failed to simulate easy closure. Data collated and analysed included patient demographic profile, tumour profile, parameters associated with pretaping and clini cal outcome. A descriptive account demonstrating the technique is provided. The average age in the cohort was 44 years. The sample represents 24 sets of pretaping applications prior to 24 excisions. Twenty-three (96%) of these were performed on limbs. The 24 lesions treated were made up of five mel anomas, 16 non-melanoma cutaneous neoplasms and three soft tissue sarcomas. The total time period of each set of applications per lesion varied from 15 min to 26 days. The mean width of the ellipse removed was 27 mm for cutaneous neoplasms (n = 21) and 84 mm for soft tissue sarcomas (n = 3). The pretaping allowed for simple direct wound closure with healing in all cases. Pretaping applied for as little as 30 min to several days prior to surgery can, within limits, expand skin tissue to achieve simple skin closure following elliptical excision of skin and soft tissue tumours in patients ...
Source: European Journal of Plastic Surgery - Category: Cosmetic Surgery Source Type: research