Repair of minor tissue defect in fingers by transfer of free arterialized venous flaps

Objective: Reconstruction of skin and soft tissue defects in the fingers is a huge challenge in recent years. We present a retrospective analysis of nine patients with arterialized venous flaps used to cover defects in the fingers. Methods: Nine patients with various finger tissue defects were treated using arterial venous flap from the hand. Seven patients were men and two were women with the mean age 28.3 years, of which eight had injury by machine crush, one by chain saw. Fracture and dislocation in five cases and with tendon rupture in five cases. The defects ranged from 2.5 cm × 2.5 cm to 4.5 cm × 4.5 cm. All flaps were transferred as free flaps. Results: Among the 9 patients, flaps survived in all patients with one experiencing partial epidermal necrosis. After flap transplantation, mild swelling occurred in the flaps, but began to decrease on the second week. All the patients reported a normal use of their finger activities in daily living and work. Except the scar, no donor-site morbidity was reported. Conclusion: The arterialized venous flap has good function with low donor site morbidity. It is an excellent flap for reconstruction for finger defects with better survival rate.