Sural Artery Flap for the Treatment of Soft Tissue Defects around Knee Joint

Bae, Kee Jeong; Lee, Young Ho; Kim, Min Bom; Lee, Hyuk Jin; Kwon, Ji Eun; Baek, Goo Hyun

Abstract

PURPOSE
This report presents the authors' experience of twelve patients with sural artery flap for soft tissue defects around the knee joint.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The patients' age ranged from 25 to 80 years; seven of the patients were male and five were female. The cause of soft-tissue defects involved wide excision for malignant soft tissue tumor, tumor prosthesis related infection, infection after total knee arthroplasty and chronic osteomyelitis. Postoperative range of motion was checked. The sensibility of flap was evaluated by Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments and two-point discrimination.
RESULTS
All flaps survived and provided satisfactory coverage of the defect. There was no complication except one delayed skin graft incorporation at donor site. Seven knee joints which had been stiff previously gained average 58 degrees of ROM postoperatively. All flaps retained sensibility and showed no significant increase in sensory thresholds comparing with contralateral side.
CONCLUSION
Sural artery flap not only shows high survival rate and broad coverage ability, but also offers improvement in range of motion and preservation of sensation. We speculate that sural artery flap is valuable for the reconstruction of the soft tissue defects around knee joint.