Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 15, 2026
Synergizing Antegrade Endoscopic with Bridging Vein Harvesting for Improvement of Great Saphenous Vein Graft Quality from the Lower Leg
Published on: November 19, 2019
A retrospective study of end-to-side venous anastomosis for free flap in extremity reconstruction
1Orthopedics, Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Zhongshan Road 321, Nanjing, 210008, China.
Introduction:
The success of end-to-side (ETS) venous anastomosis primarily depends on several mandatory factors including recipient vessel selection and reconstruction site. This retrospective study was designed to analyze the success rate of ETS venous anastomosis for free flap extremity reconstruction.
Methods:
Between 2009 and 2011, ETS venous anastomosis was performed in 117 patients to reconstruct soft tissue defects of extremity at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital. The patients were divided into three groups: (1) only one large recipient vein left, (2) two deep venas, (3) one deep vein and one superficial vein. Medical records and the follow-up data were retrospectively reviewed. The success rates of the three groups were compared with Chi-squared test.
Results:
Totally, 5, 52, and 60 patients were included in Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3, respectively. The overall surgery success rate was 96.6% (113/117) with four failures: zero in Group 1, two in Group 2 (2/52, 3.8%) and two in Group 3 (2/60, 3.3%), due to venous thrombosis. The re-anastomosis rate in re-exploration in Group 1, 2 and 3 was 0%, 1.9% (1/52), and 1.7% (1/60), respectively. No complication was observed during the operation.
Discussion:
No statistical difference was observed in flap failure rate among the three different types of ETS anastomosis. This suggests that differences of the ETS anastomosis surgical site might not affect the surgery success rate.
Conclusion:
These results confirmed that the success rate of ETS anastomosis was not affected by the local conditions of surgery site.
