Flap Surgeries

Flap Surgeries

A flap is a piece of tissue with its own blood supply that can be used to cover an open wound. A flap is made from skin with its underlying subcutaneous tissue, fascia, or muscle. Depending on the reconstructive needs, bone can also be included in a flap.

The term “local flap” implies that the tissue is taken from adjacent tissues to the open wound in need of coverage, whereas for a “distant flap”, the tissue is brought from an area away from the open wound. Flap coverage of a wound is the next higher rung ,up the reconstructive ladder after a skin graft.

Examples of wounds that require flap coverage include wounds with exposed bone, tendon, blood vessels or any other vital structure and large wounds over a joint , for which a split thickness skin graft or secondary wound closure would result in tight scarring and contracture.

Depending on the flap movement there are four major types of local flaps:- the advancement flap (moves directly forwards) the rotation flap (rotates around a pivot point to be positioned into an adjacent defect), the transposition flap (moves laterally in relation to a pivot point to be positioned into an adjacent defect) and the interpolation flap.

( with an island of normal skin between the flap and the wound)