Free medial sural artery perforator flaps in repairing soft tissue defect of hands
Objective To investigate the clinical effect of free medial sural artery perforator flap in repairing soft tissue defect of hands.Methods From July 2018 to November 2022,Department of Hand Surgery of my hospital used medial sural artery perforator flaps to repair soft tissue defect of hands for 9 cases,including 6 male cases and 3 female cases,with an average age of 40 years(range:27-58 years).Trauma mechanism:5 cases of heavy rolling injury,3 cases of electric saw cutting injury,and 1 case of thermal compression injury.The wound area was long 3.0 cm×wide 4.0 cm-long 4.0 cm×wide 6.0 cm,and the flap area was long 4.0 cm×wide 5.0 cm-long 5.0 cm×wide 6.5 cm.All 9 flap donor areas can be directly sutured.Results All 9 flaps survived,and the wounds of the donor and recipient areas primary healed.Follow-up ranged 6-30 months postoperatively.The flaps were not significantly bloated,the color and texture were similar to the skin of the hand,the two-point discrimination was S2-S3,and the calf scars were hidden with no obvious hyperplasia.Conclusions The perforators of the medial sural artery have constant anatomy,hidden donor area,abundant blood,effective anti-infection,and low fat content under the flap.The repair of soft tissue defect of hands by free grafting achieves good clinical results.