Comparison of blood flow after warm and cool ischemia in island flaps: latissimus dorsi myocutaneous and epigastric flaps in the dog.
Cooling has been reported to improve the survival of tissues used in free transfers. Very little has been written about blood flow in flaps following ischemia and about the effect of temperature on flow. In each of 4 dogs, 2 island latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flaps and 2 island epigastric axial flaps were made ischemic for one hour. Flaps were subjected to three temperature conditions during ischemia: warm ischemia, cool ischemia, and cool ischemia followed by rewarming prior to reestablishment of blood flow. Following ischemia, blood flow in the artery of the pedicle was measured using an electromagnetic flowmeter. Both latissimus dorsi and epigastric flaps subjected to warm ischemia experienced a reactive hyperemia, a period lasting several minutes during which blood flow increased severalfold over baseline flow. Cooling the latissimus dorsi flap had no major effect on this hyperemia. However, cooling the epigastric flap attenuated the hyperemic response observed in a warm flap. Both the peak flow attained and the rate of rise to peak flow were decreased. Rewarming the epigastric flap prior to clamp removal gave a hyperemia similar to that observed in the warm flap.
D000818:Animals; D001365:Axilla; D003080:Cold Temperature / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003250:Constriction; D004285:Dogs; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena; D006358:Hot Temperature / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006940:Hyperemia / Q000209:etiology; D007511:Ischemia / Q000209:etiology*; D009132:Muscles / Q000098:blood supply; D013270:Stomach; D013524:Surgical Flaps