[Operative treatment of vulnerable scars and deep soft-tissue defects of the thumb with a free toe pulp neurovascular flap].

Because of the capability of opposition, the thumb is the most important digit of the hand. In case of deep soft-tissue defects of the pulp, it is necessary to reconstruct the palmar surface of the distal phalanx of the thumb using tissue with good sensibility. Between 1982 and 1998 at the Department of Hand Surgery, Plastic and Microsurgery of the Berufsgenossenschaftliche Unfallkrankenhaus Hamburg, we used a free toe pulp neurovascular flap for reconstruction of the pulp of the thumb in nine patients. All flaps healed without complications. Indications, operative techniques, and results of this procedure are described.