The helix flap for circular skin defects: case reports

After tumor resection, skin defects generally form circular shapes. However, closure of circular skin defect cannot be achieved satisfactorily by direct suture. Local flaps or skin grafts can be used to cover such defects. However, performing a graft or flap can require additional tissue resection to convert the flap’s shape to the defect’s shape. Reconstruction of these defects may cause problems such as distortion of anatomic points and extra normal skin resection. To solve those problems, a new local flap is reported; this is a combination of transposition, rotation, and subcutaneous flap techniques. This flap has been performed with success on various body surfaces for defects of a size ranging from 1.5 to 9 cm in diameter. In this paper, technical details and some clinical cases are presented.