The evolving breast reconstruction: from latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap to a propeller thoracodorsal fasciocutaneous flap

The publication of the Latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap without muscle by Angrigiani et al. in 1995 (1) was in fact the first thoracodorsal artery perforator flap (TAP/TDAP-flap) and represented a new way of thinking in autologous flap design based on the angiosome concept previously presented by Taylor and Palmer in 1987 (2). The TAP or TDAP-flap concept within breast surgery has since been developed further by Hamdi et al. for both oncoplastic breast surgery as well as for breast reconstruction (3,4) and a muscle sparing variation of the technique in combination with an implant was subsequently published by Brackley et al. (5)