title: Free flap transfer bridged by antegrade and retrograde posterior tibial vessel flaps temporally borrowed from the healthy leg.
abstract: OBJECTIVE: To study the methods and techniques of free flap transfer bridged by posterior tibial vascular flap in treating large soft tissue defects in low limbs without usable recipient blood vessels. METHODS: Based on morphological observation and measurement of arterial pressure and blood flow, an antegrade and a retrograde vascular bridge flaps were designed using the healthy posterior tibial vessels to serve as vascular pedicles to carry two free flaps for transplantation. RESULTS: Eight cases of patient with one or two large soft tissue defects in the leg region were treated by the method. All the bridge flaps and free flaps survived well, and the defects were repaired completely. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that it is an ideal method for using the posterior tibial vessels from the healthy limb to form vascular pedicles in repairing large soft tissue defects in patients without a usable recipient blood vessel.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Nanfang Hospital, First Military Me dical University, Guangzhou 510515, China.
authors.forename: Guoxian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pei
authors.forename: Dongsheng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shizhen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhong