Concurrent cranial and caudal sartorius muscle flaps for reconstruction of an abdominal wall defect after resection of a high‐grade rhabdomyosarcoma in a dog

Abstract

A five-year-old male neutered border collie presented with a soft tissue sarcoma in his right flank. CT revealed that the mass originated from the right rectus abdominis muscle. The mass was removed en bloc with 3 cm lateral margins and full-thickness abdominal wall resection. A 15 cm diameter full-thickness defect was created in the right caudal ventrolateral aspect of the abdomen, which was closed in one stage by transposition of the cranial and caudal bellies of the sartorius muscle. The recovery was favourable and the histopathology-immunohistochemistry results provided a final diagnosis of high-grade rhabdomyosarcoma and confirmed complete resection of the mass. The dog was fully ambulatory with no evidence of lameness, metastatic disease or recurrence of local disease 12 months postoperatively.