RESUMEN
The arterial source of the flap,the anastomoses of cutaneous arteries in theskin and subcutaneous tissue and nervous distribution in the flap were observed andsurveyed in 42 upper limbs of adult cadavers.1.The arterial source of the flap comes mainly from the cutaneous branches ofprofund brachial artery,radial collateral artery,lateral humeral cutaneous artery andcutaneous branches of the posterior circumflex humeral artery.In most cases theprofund brachial artery and radial collateral artery may be served as the vascularpedicle of the flap of lateral brachium in transplantation.2.The cutaneous arteries in this flap anastomose each other to from a networkin the skin and subcutaneous tissue.Cutaneous arteries arising from the medial brac-hial region and the upper part of forearm also participate in the formation of thisvascular network.3.The veins of the flap contain both superficial and deep groups:The superfi-cial group is the cephalic vein of brachium which goes upward along the lateralsulcus of m.biceps brachii and its outer caliber is somewhat wider;the deep groupfollows the profund brachial artery or radial collateral artery as their venae comit-antes.Both groups may be sutured together or separately with veins of the recipientin skin grafting.4.The lateral brachial cutaneous nerve and posterior antebrachial cutaneousnerve pierce through the lateral intermuscular septum at various levels,and innervateover the skin in lateral brachial and posterior forearm regions.Since the posteriorbrachial cutaneous nerve is accompanied closely by the radial collateral artery,muchattention should be paid to it in cutting skin flap.5.The extent of cutting a skin flap in lateral brachial region can be enlargeddue to free anastomoses with arteries of adjacent regions which was demonstrated byperfusing red ink into profund brachial artery.The flap of lateral brachium maybe subdivided into following three parts:the upper,middle and lower,the vascularpedicle of which are the cutaneous branch of posterior circumflex humeral artery,lateral humeral cutaneous artery and profund brachial artery(or radial collateralartery)respectively.