Prophylaxis for preventing venous thromboembolism in knee arthroscopy and soft tissue reconstruction: consensus statements from an international panel of experts.

PURPOSE: There is a lack of consensus regarding need for Venous Thrombo Embolism (VTE) prophylaxis following arthroscopic knee surgery and open soft tissue knee reconstruction. Clear cut guidelines like ones for trauma surgery and arthroplasty do not exist and the published literature is limited to case reports with a few society guidelines. Given this lack of consensus, we conducted a modified Delphi questionnaire of international experts to provide recommendations on this topic. METHODS: The consensus statements were generated using an anonymised 3 round modified Delphi questionnaire, sent to an international panel of 38 knee surgeons, with an 80% agreement being set as the limit for consensus. The responses were analysed using descriptive statistics with measures like mode, median and box plots. Feedback was provided to all panelists based on responses from the previous rounds to help generate the consensus. RESULTS: Six consensus statements were generated after the three rounds of Delphi. Patient factors, prolonged surgery duration and family history of thrombogenic events emerged as the main points to be taken into consideration for prophylaxis. CONCLUSION: It was established through this study, that there exists a select group of patients undergoing arthroscopic surgery that justify the usage of VTE prophylaxis. The expert responses to most of the questions in different scenarios favoured usage of VTE prophylaxis based on patient factors like advanced age, past history of VTE, smoking, oral contraceptive use etc. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level V.

Bases anatómicas del colgajo anterolateral de muslo de flujo inverso / Anatomical basis of distally based anterolateral thigh flap

Introducción y objetivo: El colgajo anterolateral de muslo de base distal presenta una alternativa interesante para la reconstrucción de los defectos cutáneos de la rodilla.El motivo de este trabajo es el estudio anatómico de la arteria descendente de la circunfleja femoral lateral y su existencia o no de anastomosis distal, que nos permitirá la realización del colgajo basado distalmente.Material y método.Estudiamos diferentes ítems en 22 miembros inferiores formolizados: origen de la arteria, distancia desde la salida de la perforante de la arteria descendente hasta la piel, longitud y localización de la arteria descendente, anastomosis distal en el caso de que la hubiera, localización del punto pivote tomando como punto de referencia la esquina súpero-lateral de la patela y la suma de la longitud de la perforante, y la longitud de la arteria de la descendente que nos da la longitud del pedículo que podemos obtener al disecar el colgajo.Resultados.En relación con la anastomosis distal describimos 2 modelos. Modelo 1: no anastomosis, con una proporción del 45%; y modelo 2: anastomosis distal existente, con un 55%. En el modelo 2 establecemos a su vez 3 tipos de anastomosis: tipo 1, cuando la anastomosis se realiza con la arteria geniculada lateral superior, en un 42%; tipo 2, anastomosis con la arteria femoral profunda, en un 25%; y tipo 3, anastomosis con ambas, en un 33%.El punto pivote lo encontramos como media a 11 cm del borde superior de la patela. La longitud del pedículo presentó una media de 15 cm.Conclusiones.Nuestros resultados demuestran que el colgajo anterolateral de base distal es una adecuada alternativa para la cobertura de pérdidas de sustancia en la rodilla. Para emplearlo, debido a la diversidad anatómica, sería adecuado realizar una angiografía previa o una revisión intraoperatoria de la anastomosis distal. (AU)

Background and objective: The distally based anterolateral thigh flap is an interesting alternative for the reconstruction of skin defects of the knee.The reason for this paper is the anatomical study of the descending artery of the lateral circumflex femoral and the existence or not of a distal anastomosis that allows us to perform the distally based flap.Methods.Different items were studied in 22 embalmed lower limbs: origin of the artery, distance from the outlet of the perforator of the descending artery to the skin, length and location of the descending artery, distal anastomosis if any, location of the pivot point taking as a reference point the supero-lateral corner of the patella, and the sum of the length of the perforator and the length of the descending artery, which gives us the length of the pedicle that we can obtain by dissecting the flap.Results.Related to the distal anastomosis, we described 2 models. Model 1: no anastomosis, with a ratio of 45%, and model 2: there is an anastomosis in 55%. In model 2 we have established 3 types of anastomosis: type 1, when the anastomosis is performed with the superior lateral geniculate artery, in 42%; type 2, anastomosis with the deep femoral artery, in 25%; and type 3, anastomosis with both, in 33%. The pivot point was found an average of 11 cm from the upper edge of the patella.The length of the pedicle had an average of 15 cm.Conclusions.Our results demonstrate that the distally based anterolateral flap is an adequate alternative for knee soft-tissue reconstruction. Due to the anatomical diversity, angiography or intraoperative revision of the distal anastomosis would be appropriate to perform this flap. (AU)