title: The sural artery perforator flap for coverage of defects of the knee and tibia.
abstract: We reconstructed four knee and lower leg defects using the sural artery perforator flap between 2000 and 2003, and describe them here. The sural artery perforator flap can save the gastrocnemius muscle, its motor nerve, deep fascia, lesser saphenous vein, and sural nerve with no functional loss. Intramuscular dissection of the perforator achieves increased length of the pedicle compared with a conventional gastrocnemius myocutaneous flap. The flap is thin, and either the medial or lateral sural artery may be used. The flap is suitable in selected cases for regional reconstruction around the knee and upper half of the lower leg as a pedicled flap.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, Okazaki City Hospital, Aichi, Japan. GHD01126@nifty.com
authors.forename: Yasutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Umemoto
authors.forename: Yasunori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Adachi
authors.forename: Katsumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ebisawa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001158:Arteries; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007717:Knee / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D013977:Tibia / Q000601:surgery*