Staged Reconstruction of the Mangled Hand with the Combined Use of Pedicled Groin Flap and Free Wrap Around Flap.
- Author:
Young Hak ROH
1
;
Moon Sang CHUNG
;
Goo Hyun BAEK
;
Young Ho LEE
;
Hyun Sik GONG
;
Seung Hwan RHEE
;
Ye Hyun LEE
Author Information
1. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. orthoyhl@snu.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Hand injury;
Pedicled groin flap;
Wrap around flap
- MeSH:
Discrimination (Psychology);
Explosions;
Female;
Groin;
Hand;
Hand Injuries;
Humans;
Imidazoles;
Male;
Motor Vehicles;
Nitro Compounds;
Thumb
- From:Journal of the Korean Microsurgical Society
2009;18(2):62-66
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
PURPOSE: Despite the free tissue transfer using microsurgical technique being the current trend of soft tissue reconstruction of the hand, the pedicled groin flap has the advantage to provide coverage for the mangled hand without necessitating the use of a damaged arterial system and also providing the benefit of saving the arterial system for later free tissue transfer. This report presents the author's experience using pedicled groin flap in four cases of mangled hands with massive bone and soft tissue defects requiring later thumb reconstruction with the free wrap around flap. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The patients' age ranged from 30 to 51 years; three patients were male and one was female. The causes of mangled hand included two machinery crush injuries, one laboratory explosion and one motor vehicle accident. While evaluating the post-operative results, factors like flap survival, complications, stability in opposition, pinch power and 2 point discrimination were taken into account. RESULTS: All massive soft tissue defects of the hands were completely covered with pedicled groin flap successfully. The reconstructed thumb using free wrap around flap did not have any limitation in opposition. There was no occurrence of post-operative infection and all the flaps survived completely. The average pinch power was 70% of the contralateral intact thumb and average 2 point discrimination was 10 mm. CONCLUSION: The pedicled groin flap for the reconstruction of the massive soft tissue defects of the hand with subsequent reconstruction of the thumb with a wrap around flap is a very useful procedure. The combined use of pedicled groin flap and wrap around flap allows adequate coverage of sizable soft tissue defects and functional thumb opposition in cases of reconstruction of the mangled hands.
