BACKGROUND:The most advanced and representative diagnosis techniques for perforating branch of blood vessels include digital subtraction angiography, CT, MRI and other imaging techniques. These methods can visualize blood vessels clearly and have a high precision, but there are some trauma and less popular.
OBJECTIVE:To apply high-frequency ultrasound for detection of thoracic dorsal artery and perforating branch, and provide a reference for preoperative design of thoracic dorsal artery perforating flap.
METHODFifteen patients candidate for thoracic dorsal artery perforating flap were included in this study. Before surgery, we used high-frequency ultrasound to detect the perforating branch, including vascular contorts, diameter, the location of the perforators and surface markers. The thick, superficial, paral el perforating branch was selected as the main blood vessels, to design and cur the skin flap.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:In the involved 15 cases, thoracic dorsal artery were derived from the subscapular artery, thoracic dorsal artery and its main branches, as wel as more than 1 mm main perforating branch in 13 cases were clearly visible. It was consistent with intraoperative measurement results. The perforating branch less than 1 mm only showed strip-like blood flow signal or no blood flow and spectrum signal, and there was an unclear boundary to surrounding tissue. One case appeared distortion and variation of blood vessels before surgery, thus changed to other surgery. Two cases had no perforating branch by preoperative detection, which was then confirmed by intraoperative anatomy. High-frequency ultrasound has a significant effect on preoperative position of perforating branch, and the combination with computer tomography angiography and magnetic resonance angiography can support a more comprehensive and reliable reference.