Coverage of the Severely Traumatized Extremity by Emergency Free Flap: Case Report

ABSTRACT

Emergency free flap has been advocated to cover the severely injured extremity for more than two decades, due to its numerous advantages such as low incidence of flap failure and infection rate and early recovery of function. But there are very few reports about these. The authors report their experience in using the emergency free flap for reconstruction of extremities. For last 10 years, 4 patients ranging from 3 to 27 years old with severely traumatized extremities were treated with emergency free flap transfers. Three were males and the other was a female. Flap size ranged from 2x5 cm2 to 7x22 cm2. The locations of the recipient site were the dorsum of the foot, the cubital fossa, the popliteal fossa and the upper arm. The number of the donor sites used was as follows one scapular flap, two parascapular flaps, and one radial forearm flap with the radial bone. All of the flaps survived without need of re-exploration. There was no infection or flap loss. Involved joints have recovered a normal range of motion. Therefore, we consider that the emergency free flap is a very safe and reliable method to cover the severely injured extremities.