Use of the expanded skin flap in esthetic reconstruction of postburn deformity.

Tissue expansion is very useful in the restoration of postburn deformities. We describe two esthetic reconstructions of postburn deformity with expanded skin flaps. In case No. 1, the patient was plagued with the pigmented skin graft used for coverage of a burn ulcer on the lateral chest. The graft was completely replaced by expanded skin flaps and esthetic improvement was obtained. In case No. 2, the patient had postburn alopecia including the right hairline and sideburn. The expanded scalp free flap harvested from the contralateral side was used and an excellent result was obtained. We submit that tissue expansion is the technique of choice for esthetic reconstruction of postburn deformities.