The behaviour o free muscle and musculocutaneous flaps after early loss of axial blood supply.
Clinical experience has shown that a very large part of a free muscle, musculocutaneous or even osseo-musculocutaneous flap which loses its axial blood supply at ten days may survive. Vascularisation of muscle-containing flaps from the base is progressive and when a free-flap appears avascular on surface inspection careful tangential excision of the dead tissue will usually reveal surviving tissue in the deeper layers that will accept a split-skin graft or even another flap. Four illustrative cases are presented and discussed in detail.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006085:Graft Survival; D006097:Granulation Tissue; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009132:Muscles / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000637:transplantation; D012272:Ribs / Q000637:transplantation; D016038:Skin Transplantation; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D013997:Time Factors