Intra-flap thrombosis secondary to acute sickle crisis: a case report

We present the case of a 40-year-old patient with sickle cell trait who underwent bilateral breast reconstruction with microvascular TRAM flap transfer. Intraoperatively, the patient developed arterial anastomotic thrombosis of the right breast flap. The left breast flap had already been harvested and was placed on ice. Both anastomoses were then successfully completed. Postoperatively, the patient developed a pulmonary embolism and heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. On postoperative day 12, the left cutaneous Doppler signals were lost, and exploration revealed a thrombosed pedicle and nonviable left breast flap. Pathologic specimen evaluation revealed sickled cells within the flap microvasculature. We believe that prolonged ischemia time and hypothermia precipitated erythrocyte sickling within the flap, causing intra-flap thrombosis that propagated to the pedicle. While sickle cell diseases are not a contraindication to free tissue transfer, we believe that flap cooling should be utilized with caution in this circumstance.