The unilateral deep inferior epigastric perforator flap: comparing university to community hospital.

The deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap is considered to be the gold standard for autologous breast reconstruction. This study evaluates the outcome of unilateral DIEP flap reconstructions, comparing university with a community hospital setting. A total of 77 unilateral DIEP flaps were performed at one university hospital and two community hospitals by the same two surgeons.

The role of free flaps in the treatment of persistent scalp osteomyelitis.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of the combination of an extensive surgical debridement and simultaneous free flap repair in case of troublesome cranial osteomyelitis.

Methods: Five patients with persistent, frontal bone osteomyelitis were treated with surgical debridement of the infected bone and reconstruction with a free flap. In all patients, osteomyelitis occurred after neurosurgical procedures and lasted from 1 to 7 years.

Preservation of rat cremaster muscle microcirculation after prolonged cold storage and transplantation.

Background: Microvascular surgery for the reconstruction of complex defects involves an ischemic period, which may cause flap failure as the result of ischemia/reperfusion injury. We assessed the microvascular consequences of rat cremaster muscle transplantation after prolonged periods of cold storage in HTK-Bretschneider solution (HTK).

Materials And Methods: Cremaster muscle transplantations were performed immediately or after 8 or 24 h of cold storage (4 degrees C) in HTK or saline.

Microcirculatory hemodynamics of the rat cremaster muscle flap in reduced blood flow states.

Recent studies revealed that muscle and musculocutaneous flaps have the lowest peripheral resistance and best flap survival. The critical values of flow rates responsible for this survival have not been established. The authors evaluated the effect of prolonged arterial flow reduction on flow hemodynamics and muscle flap survival, independent of neovascularization using the rat cremaster muscle island flap model for microcirculatory studies.