The use of a malleable retractor as a blunt dissector in tissue expander insertion

摘要

Tissue expansion, as a modality to achieve soft tissue augmentation and flap prefabrication, is one of the main reconstructive procedures used in plastic surgery. The self-expansion of the implant by patients or their relatives is an easy process, which decreases the cost of the expansion process dramatically. If the expander insertion procedure is performed in a perfect manner to achieve a good match of implant size to that of the cavity size, establishment of perfect hemostasis of the implant cavity, placement of the implant without any folding on itself, convenient placement of the expander ports, and perfect preoperative planning of the incision site for implant insertion, there should be a low complication rate. In this article, the pitfalls of the tissue expansion process are emphasized, and the usefulness of a flat malleable retractor in tissue expander insertion is highlighted.