BACKGROUND Secondary operations of the anterior abdominal wall following breast reconstruction with abdominal flaps are sometimes performed to improve outcome. The purpose of this study was to review a single surgeon's experience with secondary abdominal wall operations following breast reconstruction with the deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) and free transverse rectus abdominis muscu...

Thrombospondin-1 (TSP1) limits the angiogenic and vasodilator activities of NO. This activity of TSP1 can be beneficial in some disease states, but endogenous TSP1 limits recovery of tissue perfusion following fixed ischemic injury in dorsal skin flaps in mice. Using mice lacking the TSP1 receptors CD36 or CD47, we now show that CD47 is the necessary receptor for limiting NO-mediated vascular s...

Rectangular flaps on the rat or mouse dorsum are frequently used for flap survival elongation research. However, since rectangular flaps are purely random, the survival rate varies among individuals. A reliable animal flap model with low individual variation is desirable for flap survival research, especially in the angiogenic field. We investigated the survival rate of paired flaps in the rat ...

OBJECT The risk of surgical site infection (SSI) after craniotomies or craniectomies in patients in whom contaminated bone flaps have been reimplanted has not been determined. The objectives of this study were to identify the prevalence of bone flaps with positive cultures--especially those contaminated with Propionibacterium acnes--to assess the risk of SSI after reimplanting (either during th...

BACKGROUND Despite the widespread use of free perforator flaps, pedicled perforator flaps seem not to be as widely accepted, probably because of the fear of vascular complications caused by transfer of a flap attached only by its vascular pedicle, prone to shearing, kinking, and trauma. In this article, the authors report on their experience with 85 consecutive cases, focusing on incidence, pre...

BACKGROUND Groin dissections result in large wounds with exposed femoral vessels requiring soft tissue coverage, and the reconstructive options are diverse. In this study we reviewed our experience with the use of the pedicled anterolateral thigh and vertical rectus abdominis musculocutaneous flaps in the reconstruction of large groin wounds. METHODS Groin reconstructions performed over a per...

Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) is known to increase the survival of skin flaps by promoting neovascularization; however, the detailed mechanisms involved are not fully understood. In the present study, we aimed to characterize the effects of HBO treatment on neovascularization and skin flap survival. We also analyzed the mechanisms associated with the expression of angiogenic molecules, such as stroma...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the results obtained using local myocutaneous rotation flaps in cases of wound dehiscence after total knee arthroplasty. METHODS Patients undergoing these surgical procedures were selected in the 2000-2012 period. The nine selected cases during this period were subjected to flap coverage due to skin dehiscence associated with infection. In eight cases we used rotation fl...

OBJECTIVES The restoration of an intact covering is the primary surgical requisite following trauma of the lower extremity because deep healing can be no better than the surface covering. The present article is about our experience of lower limb reconstruction using fasciocutaneous flaps. METHODS 20 fasciocutaneous flaps in 15 males and 5 females were used for the wound / defect of lower limb...

BACKGROUND Reconstruction of large scalp defects after tumor resection is a challenging problem. We aimed at putting an algorithm for reconstruction of those defects. METHODS Forty-two patients with scalp malignancies were enrolled in this study. Tumors were resected to a 1 cm negative margin and defects were reconstructed according to their size and to patient general condition. RESULTS No...