Reconstruction Of Thumb Defects With Medial Sural Artery Perforator Flap Detected By Doppler

BACKGROUND: Plastic surgeons are keeping on looking out a more robust technique to repair digital defects,particularly thumb defects.We tend to suggest a method of using the free medial sural artery perforator flap to repair massive thumb defects.METHODS: We used free medial sural artery flaps to resurfacing large defects of 9 thumbs in 9 clinical cases.Flaps size varied from 2×3 cm to 3×6 cm.Perforators of all flaps were accurately located by color Doppler detection.This research was conducted at the first affiliated hospital of Zhejiang University,School of Medicine.RESULTS: Nine flaps were utterly survived.And all defects of 9 thumbs were well resurfaced.Postoperative follow-up conducted from 12 to 24 months showed satisfaction in both cosmetic and function results.CONCLUSIONS: The medial sural artery perforator flap,which can be easily harvested and well thinned,is an ideal choice to repair thumb defects.Accurate location of the perforator by Doppler detection ensures the success of the operation and minimizes the injury to the donor site.