Territorial flooding, or perfusion takeover--an experimental study in abdominal flaps in the pig.
The arterial skin flap in the pig with 7 to 8 vascular pedicles, as described by Milton, was employed in a modified version by leaving it based on only one pedicle. Circulation through the base was shown to flow radially into the flap. The area thus supplied is considerably larger than that in the traditional rectangular longitudinal flap., Following initial distal necrosis, narrowing of the flap's base by severing 7 of its 8 pedicles caused slight marginal necrosis, while most of the flap survived on its single pedicle. A reasonable explanation for this phenomenon may be that the abdominal segmental arteries belong to one particular vascular system, which creates "territorial flooding" or "perfusion takeover" when circulation is impaired.
D000005:Abdomen; D000818:Animals; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D012867:Skin / Q000098:blood supply; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D013552:Swine / Q000601:surgery*