Aggressive thinning of the muscle from the pedicle of a gastrocnemius musculocutaneous flap can change the nature of that pedicle radically. Instead of being bulky and causing contour deformity, the pedicle is reduced to a vascular leash that has virtually no effect on contour at all. Radical thinning of this type was performed on the pedicle of a medial gastrocnemius flap in one patient and on a lateral gastrocnemius flap in another. Both flaps survived, suggesting that such aggressive muscle thinning is feasible and that a more moderate degree of muscle thinning, which is all that most flaps probably require, entails only minimal risk.