Treatment of kid foot soft tissue defect with reverse flap with cutaneous branch of fibular artery combine with sural nerve nutritional vessel axial

Abstract

Objective To investigate the clinical efficiency of kid foot soft tissue defect with reverse flap with cutaneous branch of fibular artery combine with sural nerve nutritional vessel axial. Methods From Feb. 2006 to Feb. 2009, according to the position and size of the soft tissue defects, the sural nerve nutritional vessel flap combine with the cutaneous branch of the peroneal artery were desingned and obtained to repair the 5 cases soft tissue defects of the foot. The flap size ranged from 8 cm × 7 cm to 18 cm × 10 cm. The vessel pedicle of cutaneous branches ranged from 1.7 cm to 3.0 cm. The distribution of the vessel pedicle of cutaneous branches ranged from 4.5 cm to 8.0 cm on the lateral malleolus. Results All flaps survived completely in 6 cases. The outline and function were satisfactory during 6-18 months follow-up. Among of 6 cases, the sural nerve were anastomosed with the acceptor sensory nerve in all cases. The skin sense were sat-isfactory after 1 year of operation and 2-point discrimination was 10-13 mm. Conclusion The blood supply of this flap is reliable without sacrifice of major arteries. Flap elevation is easy. It can reverse to a long dis-tance and can repair large skin defects. Especially this flap could have some sensory nerve. It is very useful in repairing kid foot large soft tissue defect. Key words: Peroneal arterial cutaneous branch; Sural nerve; Island flap; Transplantation; Microsurgery operation