ABSTRACT
The tensor fascia lata (TFL) ap is one of the rst described free aps. It consists of the tensor muscle, the fascia lata, and the cutaneous coverage over the fascia. It is a type 1 muscle (Mathes & Nahai) with a single dominant pedicle known as the transverse branch of the lateral circumex femoral artery and venae comitantes. The TFL is one of the most reliable and usually satisfactory aps, due to its constant anatomy and the acceptable diameter and length of the vascular pedicle. The vascular pedicle gives three musculocutaneous perforators to nourish the overlying cutaneous region. Although the TFL muscle itself is too small, these perforators permit almost all the skin of the anterolateral thigh to be supplied, offering an extensive cutaneous territory, three times the size of the muscle. It may be used as a pedicled ap to adjacent defects involving the groin, vulva, perineum, sacrum, ischium, or trochanteric region or as a free ap for more distal reconstruction.
