Objective:To investigate the curative effects of the ulnar artery perforator flap carrying 2 and more perforators of same source artery on reconstruction of defects in hand.Methods:A retrospective observational study was conducted on 13 patients with hand injuries combined with bone or tendon exposure and met the inclusion criteria of the study were admitted to the Department of Hand Surgery, Wuxi NO.9 People’s Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University between April 2022 and September 2023. The patients were 8 males and 5 females with a mean age of 45.7 (25-67) years. Seven hand injuries were caused by mechanical crushing, 2 by hot crushing and 4 by machine strangulation. After debridement, the sizes of defect were found at 5.4 cm×5.1 cm to 8.2 cm×7.5 cm. Dopplor ultrasound was applied to locate the perforators before surgery. Perforator flaps carrying cutaneous branches of ulnar artery proximal to the wrist were designed for reconstruction of the defects in hand. The flaps were 6.0 cm×5.5 cm-8.5 cm×8.0 cm in size. Donor sites were covered by the ulnar artery perforator flaps sized 5.3 cm×2.7 cm-8.2 cm×4.0 cm and carryied 2 and more perforators of the same source artery. During harvest of the flaps, the number and calibre of perforators carried by flap, the calibre of the main trunk of the superior carpal branch of the ulnar artery and the length of its pedicle were recorded. A total of 35 perforators with 0.35-0.95 mm in calibre carried by 13 perforator flaps of ulnar artery were successfully retained. Five of the 13 flaps carried the perforators with a calibre smaller than 0.50 mm. Overall, there were 7 flaps with 2 perforators per flap, 4 with 3 perforators per flap, 1 with 4 perforators and 1 with 5 perforators. The cutaneous branch of ulnar artery in a caliber of 0.75-1.35 mm and proximal to the wrist was dissected as the vascular pedicle with 30.0-45.0 mm in length. All patients were included in the schedueled postoperative at outpatient clinic to observe the appearance and sensation of the flaps, and the occurrence of complication.Results:All flaps survived and the wounds healed at first intention without vascular compromises, wound dehiscence or obvious swelling. All patients received 8 - 20 months of follow-up, with 15 months in average. Flaps presented good appearance and colour, with soft texture and without bloating. TPD of the first flap was 8-18 mm, with an average of 10.5 mm±0.5 mm and that of the second or relay flap was 7-15 mm, with an average of 9.5 mm±0.5 mm. According to British Medical Research Council (BMRC) system, the sensory evaluation of the recipient sites achieved S 4 in 5 flaps, S 3 in 9 flaps and S 2 in 12 flaps. Conclusion:The ulnar artery perforator flap with 2 and more perforators of the same source artery has sufficient and reliable blood supply and is effective in reconstruction of hand defects.

Objective:To investigate a surgical method and clinical effect on reconstruction of infective ulcer and soft tissue defects in dorsal fingers of the elderly patients with free perforator flap of peroneal artery.Methods:From March 2016 to June 2022, 13 elderly patients with infective ulcer and soft tissue defects in dorsal fingers were reconstructed with free perforator flaps of peroneal artery. The patients were 65-70 years with an average age of 66.5 years. Cause of infection: 10 ulceration and soft tissue defects were caused by diabetes and 3 by injury. Seven infective ulceration and soft tissue defects were in dorsal index fingers, 3 in dorsal middle fingers and 3 in dorsal ring fingers with the size of soft tissue defects at 2.0 cm×4.5 cm-2.0 cm×5.5 cm with an exposure of tendon and phalange. The donor site of the flaps was of contralateral calf and the flaps were 2.5 cm×5.0 cm-2.5 cm×6.0 cm in size. All donor sites were sutured directly. All patients were included in the postoperative follow-up at outpatient clinic to observe the appearance and sensation of the flap as well as finger movement.Results:All flaps survived and all wounds achieved stage I healing, without recurrence of infection. Twelve patients had the postoperative follow-up for 12 to 27 months, with an average of 21.6 months. There were satisfactory appearance of flaps and the function of fingers. Sensation of flaps recovered to S 2 in 5 patients and S 3 in 7 patients. The recovery of hand function was evaluated according to the Evaluation Trial Standards of Upper Limb Partial Functional of Hand Surgery of Chinese Medical Association, with 8 hands in excellent and 4 in good. Conclusion:The free perforator flap of peroneal artery has advantages of constant vascular anatomy, reliable blood supply, moderate thickness and direct closure of donor site. It is a useful clinical method in reconstruction of infective ulcer and soft tissue defects in dorsal fingers of the elderly patients.

Objective:To investigate a surgical method and clinical outcomes of a fascia pedicled island flap with dorsal branch of proper palmar digital nerve in reconstruction of defects of digital pulp.Methods:Seventy-five patients who had digital pulp defects and treated at Department of Orthopaedics, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Alar Hospital, Shaw Hospital Affiliated Zhejiang University School of Medicine, from December 2019 to December 2022, were retrospectively analysed. The patients were 40 males and 35 females aged 25-61 years with an average age of 42 years. The defects of digital pulp involved in 23 thumbs, 15 per group of index fingers, middle fingers and ring fingers, and 7 little fingers. The digital pulp defects were 0.8 cm×0.9 cm to 1.5 cm×2.1 cm in size, and the sizes of flap were 1.0 cm×1.2 cm to 1.8 cm×2.4 cm. Donor sites were covered by medium-thickness skin grafts and pressurised bandage was applied. Clinical outcomes of the surgery were monitored through the postoperative follow-ups at outpatient clinic, WeChat and telephone reviews.Results:Postoperative follow-up ranged 9 to 15 months, with an average of 12 months. The donor sites and skin grafts all achieved stage-I healing. Seventy-three flaps completely survived after surgery. However, 2 flaps had partial necrosis, which healed after dressing changes, 4 flaps encountered flap bruising and swelling, which were rectified by removal of high-tension sutures, and 7 flaps had tension blisters, which had disappeared in 2 weeks. At the final follow-up, the appearance and texture of the flaps were graded as excellent for 54 flaps and good for 21 flaps, all without pale, cyanotic or dark in colour. Forty-nine flaps showed normal elasticity or with slight atrophy, 24 with mild atrophy, 2 with moderate atrophy and none with obvious or severe atrophy. Mobility of the affected digits was rated as excellent for 57 digits (average 42.3°), good for 12 (average 26.7°) and fair in 6 digits (average 16.3°). TPD of flap surfaces ranged 6 to 11 mm, with an average of 8.1 mm. Digital function were evaluated according to the Evaluation Trial Standards of Upper Limb Partial Functional of Hand Surgery of Chinese Medical Association, with 48 digits in excellent (average 11.2 points), 22 in good (average 8.1 points) and 5 in fair (average 5.4 points) and with a combined excellence and good rates of 93.33%. All flap donor sites were in normal function. For patient satisfaction: 53 patients were well satisfied, 21 were fairly satisfied and 1 was dissatisfied.Conclusion:Application of the island flap with dorsal branch of proper palmar digital nerve with fascio-pedicled in reconstruction of the defect of digital pulp has a high survival rate, simple surgical operation, good satisfactory outcome, with the digital artery being remained intact.

Objective:To study the feasibility of design and harvest of free medial sural artery perforator flap with the "two-point and two-line method".Methods:From September 2022 to June 2023, Suzhou Ruihua Orthopaedic Hospital implemented the "two-point and two-line method" to guide preoperative perforator positioning and flap design. Thirty medial sural artery perforator flaps were successfully harvested with the method, and 21 wounds of hand and 9 of foot and ankle were reconstructed with the flaps. The size of soft tissue defects were 2.5 cm×2.5 cm-7.0 cm×14.5 cm, and the flaps size were 3.0 cm×3.0 cm-7.5 cm×15.0 cm. All donor sites were directly closed or by skin grafting. All patients were entered in 6-15 months of postoperative outpatient follow-up, and the recovery of donor and recipient sites was assessed by the comprehensive evaluation scales. The sensory function of the flaps was evaluated using the sensory function evaluation standard of British Medical Research Council (BMRC).Results:All perforators were successfully located with 47 perforators in total, and all of them were musculocutaneous perforator. It was found that there was 1 perforator in 14 flaps, 2 perforators in 15 flaps and 3 perforators in 1 flap. All 30 flaps survived after surgery, beside 2 flaps that had arterial insufficiency but survived successfully after surgical exploration. All donor sites healed in one stage. Comprehensive evaluation scale of flap was employed to evaluate the flaps and the scores were 84 points to 96 points with an average score of 92.5 points. The excellent and good grades were achieved in 27 flaps and 3 flaps, respectively, with a combined excellent and good rate at 100%. Sensation of the flaps was evaluated by BMRC with 1 flap of S 1, 17 of S 2 and 12 of S 3. Conclusion:The "two-point and two-line method" has been used in design of the perforator flap of medial sural artery. This method is simple and accurate, and is feasible and ideal in design of flaps before surgery.

Objective:To explore the possibility of using a inferior gluteal artery perforator flap (IGAPF) for breast reconstruction in the patient who did not have suitable donor site in back and abdomen.Methods:In November 2024, a 25-year-old unmarried and childless woman with right breast cancer received immediate right breast reconstruction by a right free IGAPF after modified right mastectomy in the Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Second Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University. The locations of perforators were confirmed by both Multi-detector computed tomography angiography (MDCTA) and portable Doppler blood flow detector before surgery. The IGAPF was designed to take the inferior gluteal wrinkle as the lower edge, the axis of the flap was parallel to the inferior gluteal wrinkle, and the width of the flap was estimated where the incision could be directly closed. The size of right IGAPF was 6.0 cm×19.0 cm. Sharp dissection was performed between the sarcolemma and muscle fibres of gluteus, then the perforators were dissected along the direction of muscle fibres of gluteus. The vascular pedicle was kept at about 8.0 cm in length. The diameter of artery was about 2.0 mm and that for the veins was about 1.5 mm. End-to-end anastomoses with the right thoracodorsal artery and vein were successfully carried out. The donor site was directly closed, and it was hidden in the inferior gluteal wrinkle. Postoperative outpatient clinical review was made.Results:Pathological examination reported: an invasive carcinoma of right breast, axillary lymph node metastasis (2/10). The patient recovered well and the flap survived without any complication, i.e. ischemic necrosis, infection and haematoma. The patient was off-bed at 3 days and discharged at 13 days after surgery. At the 40 days of postoperative follow-up, the patient achieved a good recovery and the lower limb activity was not affected by the surgery. The patient was satisfied with the reconstructed breast and donor site recovery. The patient followed with scheduled chemotherapy and subsequent radiotherapy. The volume of reconstructed breast was smaller than the other breast, of which the patient was fully informed before the surgery.Conclusion:A free IGAPF provides an alternative donor sites for achieving a breast reconstruction due to the reliable pedicle vessels and invisible donor scars.

Objective:To explore the clinical efficacy of periosteal induction technique combined with transfer of sural neurovascular flap in treatment of post-traumatic osteomyelitis of calcaneus with soft tissue defect.Methods:Clinical data, from January 2017 to December 2022, of 17 patients in the Army Institute for Traumatic Orthopaedics, the 920th Hospital of Joint Service Force of the Chinese People’s Liberation Amy with post-traumatic calcaneal osteomyelitis combined with soft tissue defect were retrospectively studied. The patients were 11 males and 6 females, with 46.5 (17-68) years in average. All patients received surgical treatment with periosteal induction technique in 2 phased surgies. Thorough debridement, antibiotics blended bone cement filling and wound coverage with sural neurovascular flap were carried out in phase-I surgery; The phase-II surgery were performed at 6-8 weeks after infection control to remove bone cement and then to transfer bone grafts for periosteal induction. After surgery, flap healing and infection control were observed. The infection control, pain improvement, recovery of ankle function and improvement of quality of life were evaluated by comparison of following parameters before and after surgery per phase: infection indicators [white blood cell count (WBC), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP)], Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) score, American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) ankle-hindfoot score, and MOS 36-item Short form Health Survey (SF-36, Boston Institute of Health, USA).Results:All 17 patients completed the two-phased surgical treatment, with an average interval of 9.4 (8-16) weeks between phase-I and phase-II surgery. All patients were included in the postoperative follow-up of 25.8 (13-40) months. After debridement in phase-I surgery, the sizes of soft tissue defect were found at 3.0 cm×2.0 cm-6.0 cm×8.0 cm. All flaps survived from the reconstructive surgery of sural neurovascular flap. Postoperative distal flap necroses occurred to 4 patients but all healed after further debridement. Recurrence of postoperative infection occurred to 2 patients and the infection control was achieved after the phase-I rescue surgery. Good outcomes without recurrence of infection were achieved after phase-II surgery. The postoperative follow-up at 1 year after phase-II surgery showed a statistically significant improvement of infection in blood indicators and reductions in VAS score, AOFAS ankle-hindfoot score and SF-36 score in comparison with those before surgery ( P<0.05). In addition to WBC, there were also significant differences in pairwise comparisons between each group at different time points ( P<0.05). Conclusion:In the treatment of post-traumatic calcaneal osteomyelitis with soft tissue defect, a combination of periosteal induction technique and sural neurovascular flap is beneficial to infection control, bone defect reconstruction, recovery of ankle function and improvement of quality of life.

Objective:To investigate the clinical effect on sural neurovascular flap of small saphenous vein super drainage in reconstruction of soft tissue defects in foot and ankle.Methods:A retrospective case study was conducted to analyse the data of 22 patients who had transfer of sural neurovascular flaps of small saphenous vein with super drainage for reconstruction of soft tissue defects in foot and ankle in the Department of Microrepair and Reconstruction, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University from June 2018 to September 2023. The patients were 19 males and 3 females aged from 16 to 70 years, with an average age of 39.0 years. Seven patients had the injury caused by compression cut, 2 of car accident, 4 of falling from height, 8 of infective wound and 1 of burning scar. The flaps were 7.0 cm × 5.0 cm - 15.0 cm × 9.0 cm in size. High frequency CDU was employed before surgery to detect the velocity of blood flow of the super drainage small saphenous vein. The patients who received transfer of sural neurovascular flap of small saphenous vein super drainage were entered in scheduled follow-up at outpatient clinic or via telephone interviews after surgery to observe the flap appearance, healing of donor and recipient sites, and the function of the affected limb. High frequency CDU was used to detect the velocity of blood flow of the small saphenous vein super drainage in follow-up.Results:All patients were included in the postoperative follow-up for 8-36 months, with an average of 20.15 months. Twenty-one flaps survived completely. One flap had partial necrosis at the edge. High frequency CDU detected an average velocity of blood flow at 2.80 cm/s in the small saphenous vein super drainage. The flaps had good colour and texture without swelling, and the wound in the recipient site healed well. The function of the affected limb was evaluated according to the functional assessment criteria of American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS), with 21 patients in excellent and 1 in good. All patients had gained normal ankle function.Conclusion:The sural neurovascular flap with a super perfused small saphenous vein can establish effective venous reflux, reduce the risk of distal necrosis of the flap, and is an effective method for reconstruction of soft tissue defects around foot and the ankle.

Objective:To investigate the clinical effect of the transfer of lateral femoral fascia or combined with anteriolateral thigh flap (ALTF) on treatment of defects of Achilles tendon and surrounding soft tissue.Methods:From May 2004 to December 2021, 15 patients with Achilles tendons defects were treated with the transfer of either lateral femoral fascia or combined with ALTF in the Department of Hand and Foot Microsurgery, Xi'an Fengcheng Hospital. Two of the patients had postoperative infection after the primary treatment for Achilles tendon rupture and 13 patients had Achilles tendon defect together with various grade of defects of surrounding soft tissues. According to the size of wound, ALTFs and lateral superior knee flaps were used for the reconstructions. Various complex tissue flaps were used in reconstructive surgery: ALTF in 10 patients, the lateral thigh muscular flap in 3 patients and the lateral knee artery flap in 5 patients. The length of Achilles tendon defect was 3.0-8.0 cm and the length of fascia was 4.0-9.0 cm. The sizes of the flaps were 4.0 cm×3.0 cm-30.0 cm×18.0 cm. After the fascia and the flaps were harvested, the fascia was rolled up or wrapped up around the muscle with the knee at 30° flexion and the ankle at 30° flexion. Then end-to-end or end-to-side blood vessel anastomoses were carried out. The ALTFs were used to cover the wounds.Results:All the 15 flaps survived. After 2 to 5 years of follow-up, the heel lift test was found negative, without re-broken of Achilles tendon. All patients were in normal walking gait, except 2 patients who had mild lameness. According to the Amer-Lindholm scoring criteria, the results were excellent in 13 patients and good in 2 patients.Conclusion:Lateral thigh composite tissue transfer is an effective method to reconstruct Achilles tendon and the defects of its surrounding tissues.

Microsurgery is a surgical technique that applies fine instruments to perform precise operations on tiny tissues and organs under optical magnification devices. Digital and intelligent technologies, such as digital imaging, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), 3D design and reconstruction, 3D printing, digital navigation, mixed perception of multi-source heterogeneous information, automatic control, digital twins, Internet of Things, cloud computing, machine learning, deep learning, large-scale AI models, generative artificial intelligence and so on, have been enabling the innovative development in microsurgery. It will make significant changes in disease diagnosis and monitoring, treatment decision-making and surgical planning, precise and individualised surgery, doctor-patient interaction and healthcare, team collaboration and professional education, and will drive the innovative development in microsurgery.

Objective:To investigate the clinical effect of reconstruction of the degloving injury of thumb and finger with free perforator flap of superficial peroneal artery.Methods:This is a retrospective study. From June 2020 to June 2023, 18 superficial peroneal artery perforator flaps from 14 calves were used to treat 15 degloved digital wounds of 14 patients in the Department of Hand Surgery, Suzhou Ruihua Orthopaedic Hospital. There were 13 single digital degloving wounds and 1 two-digital degloving wounds. Of which, 3 digits were reconstructed with 2 free perforator flaps of ipsilateral superficial peroneal artery and 12 with a single free perforator flap of superficial peroneal artery. The size of wounds was 4.0 cm×2.0 cm-10.0 cm×4.0 cm, and the flaps were 5.0 cm×3.0 cm-12.0 cm×4.0 cm in size. The donor sites in calves were sutured layer by layer with absorptive sutures. Postoperative follow-ups were conducted through regular outpatient visits, phone calls or WeChat. Survival of flaps, postoperative complications, therapeutic effect of the flaps and patient satisfaction were observed.Results:There was no vascular compromise or wound infection of the flaps. All patients were included in the 4 to 36 months of postoperative follow-up, with an average of 9.86 months. All flaps had good appearance, without obvious swelling. Colour and texture of the flaps was close to the surrounding skin. The flaps had no obvious pigmentation or ulcer and scar hyperplasia at recipient site. Sensation of the flaps recovered to S 2 to S 3. There was no obvious scar hyperplasia, pain or dysfunction at donor sites. According to the comprehensive evaluation scale of flap, the scores were found at 81 to 91, with an average score of 85 in the 14 patients, and of whom 2 were excellent and 12 were good. Patient satisfaction was evaluated according to the Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire (MHQ) and 10 patients were very satisfied and 4 were satisfied. Conclusion:Free perforator flap of superficial peroneal artery is one of the ideal flaps in reconstruction of degloving injury of thumb and fingers. It features constant and multiple perforators, reliable blood supply, high survival rate, flexible in design, thin and a small damage to the donor site.