ABSTRACT
Objective To establish the reconstructive ladder for the leg without sufficient recipient vessels by case analysis and literature review.Methods From January,2009 to January,2015,772 cases were treated in our center using free flap for leg coverage and 129 cases were found intra-operatively to have insufficient recipient vessels.There were 113 males and 16 females,and the age ranged from 4 to 71 years,averaging 36.5 years.The wounds were post-traumatic (n=108) and non post-traumatic (n=21).The management methods included elongating incision (n=25),vessel transfer(n=22),Flow-through anastomosis(n=17),end-to-side anastomosis (n=13),useing neighboring vessels (n=1S),anastomosis distal to the injured zone (n=14),cross-leg free flap (n=7),and abandoning free flap transfer(n=13).Results Except for the cases of abandoning surgery (n=13,10.1％),there were 86 cases whose flap healed totally (66.7％),9 cases total lost(7.0％),and 11 cases marginal loss (8.5％).It established a reconstructive ladder for this special situation according to the principle of difficulty level.Conclusion The insufficient recipient vessels of the leg were had multi-causes which should be taken account generally before surgery.The optimal protocol for each case should be chosen from the reconstructive ladder based on the technical difficulty level.