CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Arch Plast Surg 2022; 49(06): 782-784
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1758635
Communication

Extracorporeal Pedicles for Free Flap Reconstruction in Diabetic Lower Extremity Wounds

1   Division of Plastic Surgery, Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
,
Daniel Lazo
2   Hospital Especializado, Sao Paulo, Brazil
,
Salomao Chade
2   Hospital Especializado, Sao Paulo, Brazil
,
Alex Fioravanti
2   Hospital Especializado, Sao Paulo, Brazil
,
Olimpio Colicchio
2   Hospital Especializado, Sao Paulo, Brazil
,
Daniel Alvarez
2   Hospital Especializado, Sao Paulo, Brazil
,
Ernani Junior
2   Hospital Especializado, Sao Paulo, Brazil
,
1   Division of Plastic Surgery, Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
,
1   Division of Plastic Surgery, Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
,
1   Division of Plastic Surgery, Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
› Author Affiliations
Sources of Support None.

Abstract

Diabetic foot ulcers are a severe complication of diabetes, and their management requires a multidisciplinary approach for optimal management. When treating these ulcers, limb salvage remains the ultimate goal. In this article, we present the “hanging” free flap for the reconstruction of chronic lower extremity diabetic ulcers. This two-staged approach involves standard free flap harvest and inset; however, following inset the “hanging” pedicle is covered within a skin graft instead of making extraneous incisions within the undisturbed soft tissues or tunnels that can compress the vessels. After incorporation, a second-stage surgery is performed in 4 to 6 weeks which entails pedicle division, flap inset revision, and end-to-end reconstruction of the recipient vessel. Besides decreasing the number of incisions on diabetic patients, our novel technique utilizing the “hanging” pedicle simplifies flap monitoring and inset and allows reconstruction of recipient vessels to reestablish distal blood flow.

Financial Disclosures/Commercial Associations

None.


Author Contribution

Conceptualization: M Maricevich. Data curation: AR Gimenez, S Raj, A Abu-Ghname. Methodology: M Maricevich. Project administration: M Maricevich, D Lazo, A Fioravanti, O Colicchio, D Alvarez, E Junior. Visualization: M Maricevich. Writing - original draft: AR Gimenez, S Raj, A Abu-Ghname. Writing – review & editing: AR Gimenez, A Abu-Ghname, M Maricevich, D Lazo, A Fioravanti, O Colicchio, D Alvarez, E Junior.


Products/Devices/Drugs

None.


Patient Consent

The patients provided written informed consent for the publication and the use of their images.




Publication History

Received: 17 January 2022

Accepted: 08 July 2022

Article published online:
13 December 2022

© 2022. The Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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