Use of random pattern skin flaps for wound closure in two horses

Abstract

A 9-year-old Thoroughbred broodmare presented with a mass rostral to the medial canthus of the left eye. The mass was removed under general anaesthesia and the wound bed infiltrated with carboplatin emulsion before partially closing using a Z-plasty. The mass recurred and subsequently was resected twice. It has not recurred 68 weeks post-treatment. The second case describes removal of a granulomatous mass from the metatarsus of a yearling Thoroughbred colt. Skin expanders and a rotational flap were used to allow tension-free closure. This required two separate surgeries to firstly insert the skin expanders and secondly to remove the mass, the expanders and to close the defect. The wound healed with good cosmesis. There have been few reports on the use of skin flaps in equine reconstructive surgery in the last 30 years. This report details two cases of wound closure where skin flaps were used to achieve primary intention wound healing.

Simple techniques to decrease tension on sutured wounds of horses

“…The report by Jansson et al . (2022) in this issue describes the use of random skin flaps to heal wounds of two horses. In one case, a Z‐plasty was used successfully to aid closing a wound created when a sarcoid was excised from the horse’s face, and in the other case skin expanders and a rotational flap were used to close a fresh cutaneous defect, created by excising a chronic wound on the distal portion of the limb.…”

Use of self‐inflating tissue expanders in equine surgery: A prospective study of 20 cases

“…Case signalment and details of the primary lesions are included in Table 1. In‐depth descriptions of Cases 13 and 14, in which the STEs were used to assist surgical reconstruction, have recently been published (Cullen et al, 2022; Jansson et al, 2022).…”

“…Multiple other potential and proven applications have been described in the veterinary literature (De Lorenzi et al, 2018; Johnston, 1990; Keller et al, 1994; Pavletic, 2010). However, the use of tissue expanders has not been widely adopted by veterinary surgeons and clinical descriptions of devices used and the associated outcomes in equine surgery are few (Cullen et al, 2022; Jansson et al, 2022; Madison et al, 1989).…”