From 1984 to 1993, 49 cases with varioussoft tissue defects around the knee were treated with pedicled calf myocutaneous flap, lateral sural cutaneous artery island skin flap, saphenous neurovascularskin flap and fasciocutaneous flap. The postoperation results were sucessful in 47 cases, and failure 2 cases, in one case with flap infection and theother with scar formation surrounding the knee. Both the failure cases were cured with split skin graft. The patient were followed up for an average of three and a halfyears, the knee function was almost completely regained, and the blood supply of the flaps, the elasticity and colour of the flaps were similiar to that of the normal skin, without being cumbersome. The sensation of the saphenous neurovascular flaps and the lateral suralcutaneous artery island flaps was preserved, except partial numbness was presented at the distal part of the flaps. Operative indications and selection of cases were discussed.
Eight cases of tissue defect inthe faciomaxillo-neck region weretreated by application of the vascu-larized paraseapular free flap Themain causes of the tissue defects werepostresection of tumor in the faceor neck and cicatrical contractureafter burn. The method of flapdesign was discussed. It was stress-ed that the incision of the flap onthe outer margin should be 2 cmbeyond the lateral border of thescapula, thus the damage to thesuperficial branch of the circumfl-ex seapular artery could be avoided.
Objective To establish a new operative method to repair defects of palm and proximal fingers with double vascular pedicle flaps. Methods From August 1992 to June 2000, 20 cases of soft tissue defects of palm and fingers were repaired with double vascular pedicle flaps. Twenty patients included 9 males and 11 females, aged 17-35 years. The causes were crush,avulsion, and so on. The interval between injury and operation was 3-11 hours.The wound area ranged from 8 cm×12 cm to 10 cm×20 cm. We devised the two side flaps on pectoral-umbilical place with well-known blood vessel to cover flexion and extension regions of palm and the multi-lobes skin flap to cover defect of fingers simultaneously. Results Out of 20 patients, 19 were followed up 8-12 months with an average of 9.8 months. All the flaps survived completely. The skin colour and the contour of the palm and digits were good. Conclusion The double vascular pedicle flap is one of the best choices torepair soft tissue defect of the palm and proximal fingers; the procedure is simple and the operation is extended easily.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical effect of vacuum sealing in treatment of traumatic soft tissue defect. METHODS: From 1998. 8 to 2001. 2, 49 patients with 55 traumatic soft tissue defects were treated by vacuum sealing after debridement. Among them, there were 39 males and 10 females with mean age 38. 4 years. The wound area varied from 10 cm x 10 cm to 30 cm x 30 cm. In the experimental group, the wound surfaces or cavities were filled with polyvinyl alcohol foams with embedded drainage tubes connected with vacuum bottle (negative pressure of 50-60 kPa). Wound closure was performed with secondary suturing, or skin transplantation, or local flap grafting after 5-7 days. Besides, 126 patients were managed by traditional dressing as the control group. RESULTS: Out of 51 traumatic soft tissue defects (45 patients), the wound closure was performed with a free flap in 4, with local flap in 8, with skin grafting in 27, with secondary suturing in 6, and with vacuum sealing directly in the other 6 defects. Forty-five patients recovered and no complications (systemic and located) occurred. There were significant differences in time of secondary suturing, times of dressing, wound shrink and total therapeutic cost between two groups (P lt; 0.01). CONCLUSION: Vacuum sealing can protect the wound against contamination, evacuate the wound exudates completely, stimulate the growth of granulation tissue, and facilitate the wound healing; so vacuum sealing is a simple and effective method in treatment of traumatic soft tissue defect.
It was a difficult clinical problem to repair the defects of the distal part of the foot. Since 1987, We had used the reversed first dorsal metatarsal artery island flap in 4 cases, the results were satisfactory. The surgical anatomy, design and harvest of the flap were introduced, and it s blood supply and circulation, indication and main advantages were also discussed.
Objective To discuss the advantages and disadvantages of flaps in therepairment of soft tissue defects in upper extremity. Methods Based on the 2 609 cases of flaps in 2 512 patients from 1995 to 2004,the advantages and disadvantages of different sort of flaps, outcomes of treatment and indications of different soft of flaps were analyzed retrospectively. In the series, 2 089 pieces of the traditional flaps of different sorts were applied in 1 992 patients, 474 piecesof the axial flaps of different sorts were applied in 474 patients, different sorts of free flaps were used in 46 patients. Results Follow-ups were done for 1 month to 9 years (2.7 months in average). 2 531 flaps survived (97.01%); complete necrosis occurred in 10 flaps(0.38%); partial necrosis occurred in 68 flaps(2.61%). Of the 2 089 traditional flaps, 46 had partial necrosis(2.2%); 687 needed flap revisions(32.9%). Of the 474 axial flaps, 28 had complete or partial necrosis(5.9%); 82 needed revisions(17.3%). Of the 46 free flaps, 4 had complete or partial necrosis(8.7%) and nearly all the anterolateral flpas of thighs needed revisions.Conclusion Traditional flaps had the advantages of easy manipulation and the highest survival rate, however, also had the disadvantages of poor texture and many timesof operations. The flap with a pedicle had the advantage of good texture, consistent artery, free-range arc, however, the venous congestion was its disadvantage, which impaired the survival of the reverse flap. Free flap had the advantage ofgood texture and abandant donor site, but complicate manipulation was its shortage. Axial Flap with a pedicle is the optional choicefor repairing soft tissue defects in upper extremity.