Rat epigastric flow-through flap as a modulated arteriovenous fistula: model for the radial artery flow-through flap in distal arterial bypass.

The authors describe a rat flap model that is useful for flow studies. It is an epigastric flow-through flap that mimics the clinical use of a radial artery flow-through (RAFT) flap that has been used as an adjunct to a distal lower extremity arterial bypass graft to improve patency when there is potential high outflow resistance. The hypotheses were that this RAFT flap serves two purposes: 1) it allows additional blood flow through the skin flap and drainage via the vena comitans to increase the blood flow through the bypass graft and help to maintain bypass graft patency; and 2) it acts as a modulating arteriovenous fistula in which the additional flow through the vena comitans of the flow-through flap fluctuates with distal arterial outflow resistance.