• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.769-772
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• 2022

Femoral nerve injuries are devastating injuries that lead to paralysis of the quadriceps muscles, weakening knee extension to prohibit ambulation. We report a devastating case of electrical injury-induced femoral neuropathy, where no apparent site of nerve disruption can be identified, thus inhibiting the traditional choices of nerve reconstruction such as nerve repair, grafting, or transfer. Concomitant spinal cord injury resulted in spastic myopathy of the antagonist muscles that further restricted knee extension. Our strategy was to perform (1) supercharge end-to-side technique (SETS) to augment the function of target muscles and (2) fractional tendon lengthening to release the spastic muscles. Dramatic postoperative improvement in passive and active range of motion highlights the effectiveness of this strategy to manage partial femoral nerve injuries.

• Archives of Reconstructive Microsurgery
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.73-79
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• 1997

Complete denervation after severe brachial plexus injury make significant muscle atrophy with loss of proper function. It is much helpful to reconstruct the essential function of the elbow flexion movement in patient with total loss of elbow flexion motion after brachial plexus lesion which was not recovered with nerve surgery or long term conservative treatment from onset. In whole arm type brachial plexus injury, if there were no response to neurotization or neglected from injury, the volume of the denervated muscle is significantely reduced month by month. About 18 months most of the muscle fibers change to fibrous tissues and markedly atrophied irreversibly, further waiting is no more meaningful from that period. Authors performed 14 cases of functioning gracilis muscle transfer from 1981 to 1995 with microneurovascular technique, neuromusculocutaneous free flaps were performed for reconstruction of lost elbow flexion function. Average follow-up period was 5 years and 6 months. We used couple of intercostal nerves as a recipient nerve which were anastomosed to muscular nerve from obturator nerve in all cases. Recipient vessels were three deep brachial artery and eleven brachial artery which were anastomosed to medial femoral circumflex artery with end to end or end to side fashion. Average resting length of the transplanted gracilis were 24 cm. We can get average 54 degree flexion range of elbow with fair muscle power from flail elbow. There were one case of muscle necrosis with lately developed thrombosis of microvascular anastomosed site which comes from insufficient recipient arterial condition, 3 cases of partial marginal necrosis of distal skin of the transplanted part which were not significant problem with spontaneously solved with time goes by gracilis muscle has constant neurovascular pattern with relatively easy harvesting donor with minimal donor morbidity. Especially it has similar length and shape with biceps brachii muscle of upper arm and longer nerve pedicle which can neurorrhaphy with intercostal nerve without nerve graft if sufficient mobilization of the nerves from both sides of gracilis and intercostal region. Authors can propose gracilis muscle transplantation with intercostal nerves neurotization is helpful method with minimal donor morbidity for neglected brachial plexus palsy patients.

• Archives of Reconstructive Microsurgery
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.35-45
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• 1996

After transplantation of groin free flap was sucessed by the Daniel and Taylor in 1973, the reconstruction of plastic surgery was extensive and universal due to rapidly developement of anatomic study of the donor site and technique of microvascular surgery. The free tissue transfers is possible to be early activity and rehabilitation by one stage operation. It currently available allow transfer of specific tissue quality as bone, muscle, nerve to achieve a functional and cosmetic result as well as the most favorable secondary defect. But free flaps require critical, skillful technique and lengthy operating time. Also it has disadvantage of donor site morbity at the large tissue transfer. Authors were transferred with 107 cases in 103 patients from May 1987 to June 1996, and then we analysed free tissue transfer to acquire more increased sucess rate, satisfactory functional and cosmetic results. The sexual distribution was male prominent in 79 cases(76.7%), female in 24(23.3%) and age was variable distribution from 3 to 76 years old. The cause of defects was most prevalent in trauma of traffic and industrial accident in 51 cases(49%). The common recipient site were lower extremities in 47 cases(43.9%), upper extremities in 28 cases(26.5%), head and neck in 25 cases(23.4%), and trunk in 7 cases(6.5%). The type of transfer were free skin flaps in 46 cases(43%), free muscle or musculocutaneous flaps in 31 cases(29%), free vasculized or osteocutaneous flaps in 10 cases(9.3%), and specilized free flaps in 20 cases(18.7%). The anastomosis of artery was end to end anastomosis in 94 cases(87.9%), end to side anastomosis in 13 cases(12.1%) and all vein was end to end anastomosis. The number of anastomosed vessels were one artery one vein in 62 cases(57.9%), one artery two vein in 45 cases(42.1%) and vein graft was performed only one case. The postoperative mornitoring were used with temperature, color of flap, capillary refilling time, ultrasonogram, bone scan, doppler, and endoscopy. The reexploration was performed in 9 cases(8.4%), and then flap was loss in 3 cases(2.8%). Accordingly overall success rate was 97.2%. The postoperative complication was early vascular occlusion, hematoma, partial necrosis and late bulkiness, scarring, color dismatch etc. Therefore, free tissue transfer is the preferred method of treatment, even through conventional local and distant flaps are available.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.304-311
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• 2013

With an increasing emphasis on microsurgery skill acquisition through simulated training, the need has been identified for standardised training programmes in microsurgery. We have reviewed microsurgery training courses available across the six continents of the World. Data was collected of relevant published output from PubMed, MEDLINE (Ovid), and EMBASE (Ovid) searches, and from information available on the Internet of up to six established microsurgery course from each of the six continents of the World. Fellowships and courses that concentrate on flap harvesting rather than microsurgical techniques were excluded. We identified 27 centres offering 39 courses. Total course length ranged from 20 hours to 1,950 hours. Student-to-teacher ratios ranged from 2:1 to 8:1. Only two-thirds of courses offered in-vivo animal models. Instructions in microvascular end-to-end and end-to-side anastomoses were common, but peripheral nerve repair or free groin flap transfer were not consistently offered. Methods of assessment ranged from no formal assessment, where an instructor monitored and gave instant feedback, through immediate assessment of patency and critique on quality of repair, to delayed re-assessment of patency after a 12 to 24 hours period. Globally, training in microsurgery is heterogeneous, with variations primarily due to resource and regulation of animal experimentation. Despite some merit to diversity in curricula, there should be a global minimum standard for microsurgery training.