Long-Term Follow-Up of Flap Prefabrication in Facial Reconstruction.
Ann Plast Surg
; 79(1): 17-23, 2017 Jul.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28272147
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Flap prefabrication is to turn a random flap into an axial flap by transferring a vascular pedicle.METHODS:
In the past 13 years, we have prefabricated 20 flaps in 20 patients by the superficial temporal artery and its concomitant veins. Typically, a 50- to 800-mL tissue expander was implanted in the donor site. After flap maturation, the prefabricated flap was raised and transferred locally to cover the large defect on the face. All the cases were followed up regularly.RESULTS:
The patients' age were between 3 and 27 years, the size of the flaps were between 3.5 × 5.5 cm and 13 × 15 cm, the superficial temporal artery length was between 10 and 15 cm. All flaps were transferred successfully 10 of the flaps had venous congestion, partial epidermis exfoliation and flap necrosis occurred in 4 flaps. All cases were followed up for at least 1 year, the longest follow-up period was 9 years. Long-term follow-up results showed the prefabricated flap survived in good condition and had a satisfactory outcome.CONCLUSIONS:
Because flap prefabrication is practical, and long-term follow-ups have proved its preferable characters and stability, it is a fine method for large area facial reconstructions.
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Surgical Flaps
/
Skin Transplantation
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Plastic Surgery Procedures
/
Tissue and Organ Harvesting
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Etiology_studies
/
Incidence_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Child
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Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
En
Journal:
Ann Plast Surg
Year:
2017
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
China