Successful transfer of "free" microvascular superficial temporal artery flap with no obvious venous drainage and use of leeches for reducing venous congestion: case report.
A case is presented of "free" flap based on the frontal branch of the left superficial temporal artery and its surrounding soft tissues, without any proper vein for anastomosis, successfully transferred for eyebrow reconstruction. One can argue that this flap was a Wolfe graft. It probably was not for two reasons. First, "hairy Wolfe grafts" are always composite grafts with a thickness of 3-4 mm, as the base of the hair follicles lies in the subcutaneous tissue. Second, the edges of the flap were not sutured to the surrounding skin. Therefore, vascularization is unlikely from the surrounding skin and there was constant, definite oozing from the edge of this flap.
D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D005138:Eyebrows / Q000601:surgery; D005145:Face / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007865:Leeches; D008297:Male; D008722:Methods; D008833:Microcirculation; D011182:Postoperative Care; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D013699:Temporal Arteries / Q000637:transplantation*; D014680:Veins / Q000502:physiology