Dorsalis pedis arterialized venous flap for hand and foot reconstruction.
OBJECTIVE
To report the results of repair of skin defects in the extremities with arterialized venous flap harvested from the lateral aspect of the dorsum of the foot.


METHODS
Six cases of skin and soft tissue defects over the foot and hands were resurfaced by free arterialized venous flaps, including five patients with skin defects of the hands, and one with defects at the dorsum of the foot. The flaps were harvested from the lateral aspect of the dorsum of the foot with the sizes ranging from 2 cm multiply 5.5 cm to 6 cm multiply 11 cm. Two veins at the proximal margin of the flap were retained, one of which was anastomosed to a recipient bed artery to provide arterial inflow and the other was anastomosed to a recipient bed vein for venous outflow.


RESULTS
All flaps demonstrated mild edema and survived completely. Blisters appeared on four flaps. Using this technique, we achieved good functional and cosmetic results in this series.


CONCLUSIONS
Dorsalis pedis arterialized venous flap with rich vascular communications could enhance peripheral perfusion and decrease congestion of venous flaps, thereby improves reliability and utility for extremity reconstruction.
Department of Hand and Foot Surgery, Kangyi Hospital of Guyong, Dongguan 523047, Guangdong Province, China.
Guang
G
Yu
Hong-Yu
HY
Lei
Shuang
S
Guo
Jian-Hua
JH
Huang
Hao
H
Yu
D006801:Humans; D019637:Orthopedic Procedures; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D014680:Veins