An anatomic study of deep inferior epigastric artery diameters at the origin from external iliac and at the lateral border of rectus abdominis muscle by computed tomographic angiography from autologous breast reconstruction patients

Autologous breast reconstruction by means of microsurgical abdominal flaps is an very well described technique. The flap harvest dissection under inguinal ligament would cause the risk of parietal weakening in this zone and postoperative bulging. The goal of our study is to investigate whether the deep inferior epigastric artery diameter remains constant from its exit of the external iliac artery to its entrance in the rectus muscle sheath. One...