BACKGROUND Post-burn contractures severely deteriorate life quality. We aimed to present our treatment protocols for post-burn sequelae and the contractures that cause functional limitations. METHODS Seventy-seven cases with post-burn contracture were treated in our clinic. Post-burn contractures occurring after a burn injury affected the upper extremity, face and neck in 60, 17 and 6 cases, ...

BACKGROUND Vermilion irregularities are common secondary deformities after cleft lip repair, regressed or resected hemangiomas, trauma and tumor surgeries. Vermilion deficiency attracts considerable attention and detracts from an otherwise excellent lip repair. Minor and moderate vermilion defects can be corrected with upper lip advancement, rotation flaps, tongue flaps or grafts. Major defects...

PURPOSE Anterior segment optical coherence tomography (OCT) was used to analyze thin flaps created with the IntraLase femtosecond laser (IntraLase Corp). METHODS Twenty-five eyes of 25 patients had flaps created with the 60 kHz IntraLase femtosecond laser prior to excimer laser ablation. The desired flap thickness was 110 microm with a diameter of 8.5 mm for all eyes. At 1 month postoperative...

BACKGROUND Perforator flaps minimize abdominal site morbidity during autologous breast reconstruction. The purpose of this study was to assess whether the number of perforators harvested influences the overall deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap survival and flap-related complications. METHODS A retrospective review was performed of all DIEP flaps performed at the Hospital of the ...

BACKGROUND Problematic scar contractures are frequently observed following extensive (burn) wounds. In this study, the authors investigated the applicability of islanded and nonislanded perforator-based interposition flaps as a technique for release of scar contracture. METHODS Patients requiring surgery for scar contracture release were included. Preoperatively, a suitable perforator was ide...

The anterolateral thigh flap has been used for coverage of defects in the foot and ankle for years. Conventional extended anterolateral thigh flaps do not undergo thinning procedures, which limit their application. Here, a clinical series of 24 patients is reported in which extended anterolateral thigh flaps were used for posttraumatic foot and ankle reconstruction. Of the 24 flaps, 14 were sim...

Reconstitution of eukaryotic Okazaki fragment processing implicates both one- and two-nuclease pathways for processing flap intermediates. In most cases, FEN1 (flap endonuclease 1) is able to efficiently cleave short flaps as they form. However, flaps escaping cleavage bind replication protein A (RPA) inhibiting FEN1. The flaps must then be cleaved by Dna2 nuclease/helicase before FEN1 can act....

The introduction of perforator flaps represented a significant advance in microsurgical reconstruction. However, confusion has developed due to the erroneous belief that perforator flaps are different from conventional flaps. The concept of the perforator is not new, but is an idea that evolved from the conventional flap. In fact, some of the flaps used by microsurgeons were perforator flaps. T...

AIM To compare the outcomes of finger reconstruction using arterialized venous flap (AVF), superficial palmar branch of the radial artery (SPBRA) flap, posterior interosseous perforator flap (PIPF), and ulnar artery perforator free (UAPF) flap harvested from the ipsilateral extremity. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the outcomes for 41 free flaps from the ipsilateral extremity in the reco...

The endoscopy-assisted technique has been demonstrated in harvesting muscle flaps; however, for pedicled freestyle fasciocutaneous flaps, few studies have applied this technique. We present a surgical procedure utilizing endoscopic-assisted method to identify the perforators of pedicled freestyle fasciocutaneous flaps for the reconstruction of soft tissue defects. From August to December 2012, ...