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Objective:Exploring the clinical efficacy of using ultra-thin lobulated anterolateral thigh perforator flap(ALTPF) with retrograde separation of perforating vessels from the superficial and deep junction layer of the superficial fascia to repair large soft tissue defects in the foot.Methods:From August 2021 to November 2022, 8 patients (5 males and 3 females) were admitted to the Second Department of Hand and Foot Surgery, the Affiliated Central Hospital of Dalian University of Technology. The patients were 28 to 52 years old in age. The soft tissue defects were located in dorsal and plantar foot. At the plantar foot, the wound involved the weight-bearing area with explosion of bone, tendon or internal fixtures. The area of soft tissue defects was 6.0 cm × 5.0 cm - 16.0 cm × 8.0 cm, and the sizes of ALTPF were 8.0 cm ×5.5 cm - 18.0 cm × 8.5 cm. Preoperative high frequency CUD combined with CTA angiography were employed to locate the 2 flap perforator vessels. By keeping the perforator vessels at center and according to the soft tissue defect area and the wound shape, an ALTPF with a proper size and shape was designed in anterolateral thigh. The perforator were separated in the boundary layer between superficial and deep fascia, where it helped to obviously thin the flap. After the flap was harvested, it was further lobulated between the 2 perforators into 2 lobes after having confirmed the effective blood supply. Finally the lobulated ALTPF was transferred to covered the defect in foot. Cautions should be taken to ensure that the flap covered the weight-bearing area of foot. All the donor sites were directly sutured. Postoperative follow-up was conducted to observe the survival of flaps and the functional recovery of the reconstructed site, also to evaluate the clinical effect. Postoperative follow-up included outpatient visits and reviews over WeChat or telephone. Recovery of the ankle motor function was evaluated according to the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Societ (AOFAS) ankle-hind foot score scale.Results:All 8 ALTPF survived. Over 6 to 18 months (10.8 months in average) of follow-up, the transferred flaps had good blood supply, soft in texture, with good elasticity and thin in appearance. Appearance and function of donor sites recovered well, except 1 patient who had mild scar hyperplasia. The plantar flap had good abrasion resistance. No flap damage, bleeding or granulation tissue hyperplasia occurred when walking. The mean score of AOFAS ankle-hind foot score achieved 95.6.Conclusion:The application of ultra-thin lobulated ALTPF with retrograde separation of perforating vessels from the superficial fascia at the junction layer for repairing large soft tissue defects in the foot has good clinical efficacy.
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Objective:Verstaile free superficial circumflex iliac artery perforator flap(SCIAPF) were adopted for various reconstructive scenarios, and its clinical effect and value was evaluated.Methods:Retrospective analysis was performed on 42 patients with tissue defects admitted in the Department of Orthopeadic of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University from January 2015 to May 2019. Nine patients had injury in the foot, 8 in ankle, 8 in calf, 7 in forearm, 9 in hand, and 1 in the mouth. All of the defects were repaired by SCIAPF, including 28 single soft tissue defect wounds, 8 multiple soft tissue defect, and 6 composite defects. The size of soft tissue defect were 1.2 cm×1.8 cm-14.0 cm×20.8 cm. The size of flaps were 1.5 cm×2.0 cm-15.3 cm×22.3 cm. The patients entered follow up by outpatient clinic visit and telephone reviews to observe the survival of the flaps, functional recovery and complications.Results:In this series, there were 28 flaps, including 18 pedicled with superficia branch of superficial circumflex iliac artery, 2 pedicled with deep branch of superficial circumflex iliac artery, and 8 pedicled with 2 branches. Six were chimeric flaps. Among them, 4 flaps were iliac bone flaps with superficial branch of superficial circumflex iliac artery flaps, and 2 were superficial iliac circumflex artery flap with sartorius muscle flap. Eight cases were resurfaced with lobulated SCIAPF. Arterial anastomoses: end-to-side in 35 arteries and end-to-end in 7 arteries. Venous anastomosis: end-to-end in 27 veins and end-to-side in 15 veins. Venous return through superficial iliac circumflex vein in 25 flaps, through venae comitantes in 12 flaps and through both in 5 flaps. All flap donor sites were sutured directly. All flaps survived uneventfully except for one that compromised with end-to-side anastomotic dehiscence and bleeding, and survived after re-anastomosis. All flaps and donor sites healed primarily. During the follow-up of 6-24(mean, 11.5) months, the pliable flaps were ruddy in colour and soft in texture, without obvious bloatness and pigmentation. The donor site healed well with linear scars in 35 cases and mild scar hyperplasia in 7 cases. The donor hip function were normal. Three patients suffered a numbness of the thigh caused by intraoperative injury lateral femoral cutaneous nerve and it disappeared completely after 3 months.Conclusion:New applications of lobulated or chimeric SCIAPF, based on the SCIA vasculature or its branches, can meet most of the clinical repair requirement.
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OBJECTIVE@#To explore the effectiveness of lobulated pedicled rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap to repair huge chest wall defect.@*METHODS@#Between June 2021 and June 2022, 14 patients with huge chest wall defects were treated with radical resection of the lesion and lobulated pedicled rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap transplantation for reconstruction of chest wall defects. The patients included 5 males and 9 females with an average age of 44.2 years (range, 32-57 years). The size of skin and soft tissue defect ranged from 20 cm×16 cm to 22 cm×22 cm. The bilateral pedicled rectus abdominis myocutaneous flaps in size of 26 cm×8 cm to 35 cm×14 cm were prepaired and cut into two skin paddles with basically equal area according to the actual defect size of the chest wall. After the lobulated pedicled rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap was transferred to the defect, there were two reshaping methods. The first method was that the skin paddle at the lower position and opposite side was unchanged, and the skin paddle at the effected side was rotated by 90° (7 cases). The second method was that the two skin paddles were rotated 90° respectively (7 cases). The donor site was sutured directly.@*RESULTS@#All 14 flaps survived successfully and the wound healed by first intention. The incisions at donor site healed by first intention. All patients were followed up 6-12 months (mean, 8.7 months). The appearance and texture of the flaps were satisfactory. Only linear scar was left at the donor site, and the appearance and activity of the abdominal wall were not affected. No local recurrence was found in all tumor patients, and distant metastasis occurred in 2 breast cancer patients (1 liver metastasis and 1 lung metastasis).@*CONCLUSION@#The lobulated pedicled rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap in repair of huge chest wall defect can ensure the safety of blood supply of the flap to the greatest extent, ensure the effective and full use of the flap tissue, and reduce postoperative complications.
Subject(s)
Male , Female , Humans , Adult , Myocutaneous Flap/surgery , Plastic Surgery Procedures , Thoracic Wall/surgery , Rectus Abdominis/transplantation , Skin Transplantation , Breast Neoplasms/surgery , Soft Tissue Injuries/surgery , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the effectiveness of preoperative 3D-CTA in assisting the preparation of free thinned anterolateral thigh lobulated perforator flap with nerve in repairing soft tissue defect of limb. Methods Between February, 2010 and May, 2018, free super-thin anterolateral thigh lobulated perforator flap with nerve was transferred to repair soft tissue defect of limbs in 11 cases. There were 8 males and 3 females with an average age of 35 (range, 22-56) years.The defect area was 8.0 cm×11.0 cm-9.0 cm×23.0 cm. Preoperation CT scan of the free flap donor site was performed to obtain 3D images of the region with arterial blood supply by digital 3D reconstruction CT, and to determine the origin, direction, classification, length, diameter and the position of pedicle perforator.Postopera鄄tive regular followed-up was carried according to the Upper Limb Function Evaluation Trial Standards of Chinese Medical Association of Hand Surgery and Enneking Evaluation System. Results All 11 flaps survived. No vascular crisis happened.All 11 cases were followed-up for 3 to 12 (average, 5) months.The flaps were supple and elastic with near normal color.There was no bulkiness.Sensory function was recovered well and two point discrimination was 3.0-6.0 mm. According to the Upper Limb Function Evaluation of Upper Limb of Chinese Medical Association of Hand Surgery, the results were excellent in 1 case, good in 3 cases and fair in 1 case.The Enneking system was used to as鄄sesse the lower limbs recovery.The average score was 21, an average of 70% of limb function restored. Conclusion The free super-thin anterolateral thigh lobulated perforator flap with nerve offers advantages to the traditional antero鄄lateral thigh flap. The survived flaps are ideal in terms of covering limb defects and restoring functions. Preoperative 3D-CTA in the anterolateral thigh perforator flap transplantation is an accurate and useful method.It helps a safer and successful operation with optimal outcome.
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Objective@#To investigate the effectiveness of preoperative 3D-CTA in assisting the preparation of free thinned anterolateral thigh lobulated perforator flap with nerve in repairing soft tissue defect of limb.@*Methods@#Between February, 2010 and May, 2018, free super-thin anterolateral thigh lobulated perforator flap with nerve was transferred to repair soft tissue defect of limbs in 11 cases. There were 8 males and 3 females with an average age of 35 (range, 22-56) years. The defect area was 8.0 cm×11.0 cm-9.0 cm×23.0 cm. Preoperation CT scan of the free flap donor site was performed to obtain 3D images of the region with arterial blood supply by digital 3D reconstruction CT, and to determine the origin, direction, classification, length, diameter and the position of pedicle perforator. Postoperative regular followed-up was carried according to the Upper Limb Function Evaluation Trial Standards of Chinese Medical Association of Hand Surgery and Enneking Evaluation System.@*Results@#All 11 flaps survived. No vascular crisis happened. All 11 cases were followed-up for 3 to 12 (average, 5) months. The flaps were supple and elastic with near normal color. There was no bulkiness. Sensory function was recovered well and two point discrimination was 3.0-6.0 mm. According to the Upper Limb Function Evaluation of Upper Limb of Chinese Medical Association of Hand Surgery, the results were excellent in 1 case, good in 3 cases and fair in 1 case. The Enneking system was used to assesse the lower limbs recovery. The average score was 21, an average of 70% of limb function restored.@*Conclusion@#The free super-thin anterolateral thigh lobulated perforator flap with nerve offers advantages to the traditional anterolateral thigh flap. The survived flaps are ideal in terms of covering limb defects and restoring functions. Preoperative 3D-CTA in the anterolateral thigh perforator flap transplantation is an accurate and useful method. It helps a safer and successful operation with optimal outcome.