Preservation of Digital Palmar Veins to Avoid Venous Congestion in Heterodigital Arterialized Flaps

摘要

We read with interest three articles recently published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery about heterodigital arterialized flaps for finger and hand reconstruction. It is generally agreed that the main problem with these flaps is venous congestion.The authors introduced the use of a dorsal vein from the donor finger to reduce postoperative venous congestion. Although it was successful, this method had the disadvantage of decreasing the reach of the flap, particularly when it was used to reconstruct nonadjacent finger defects. To extend the reach of the flap, they successively explored the possibility of vein division and secondary anastomosis as well as cross-finger transfer, with obvious pros and cons