Local pharmacological preconditioning increases the survival of experimental skin flaps in rats

Skin flap survival is dependent on an adequate blood supply and on the resistance to ischemia. Experimentally we tested the effect of pharmacological preconditioning on the survival of skin flaps. The survival of an ischemic skin flap (McFarlane flap) was tested using the local application of cobalt gel in three groups of Wistar rats. The mean flap necrosis of the control group was 59.15%. The rats treated by the cobalt gel once a week showed mean necrosis in 39.09%; the rats receiving the application of the cobalt gel three times a week in 26.33%. The treated groups presented with significantly lower flap necrosis in comparison to the untreated controls. There was a significant difference in the flap necrosis occurrence according to the application frequency of the cobalt gel. The expression of the genes involved in angiogenetic processes encoding vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and glycolytic enzymes was influenced in a non-mitochondrial way in this study. The results show that non-mitochondrial preconditioning could prolong the survival of an ischemic flap.