[Measuring blood flow in microsurgically revascularized, immunosuppressed segmental allogeneic bone transplants using...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Vascular Surgery
• Orthopedic Research

Context:

• Assessing blood flow in cortical bone is crucial for evaluating microvascular anastomosis patency in bone allografts.
• Free vascularized immunosuppressed bone allografts are used to study bone perfusion.
• Current methods for assessing patency have limitations in representing the entire graft.

Purpose:

• To evaluate the efficacy of Laser Doppler Flowmetry (LDF) for measuring cortical bone blood flow.
• To determine if LDF can reliably indicate the patency of microvascular anastomoses in bone allografts.
• To compare LDF findings with the disulfine blue technique for assessing graft viability.

Summary:

• Cortical bone blood flow was measured using LDF in immunosuppressed bone allografts.
• Disulfine blue confirmed patency in all grafts, though 15% showed localized nonperfusion.
• LDF indicated non-patency in four anastomoses at four weeks and showed variable results at 20 weeks.
• The limited tissue sample size of the LDF probe restricted its ability to assess patency for the entire graft.

Impact:

• LDF's small sample volume limits its utility for assessing patency in large segments of cortical bone.
• LDF results in this study were insufficient for making general conclusions about microvascular anastomosis patency.
• Further research is needed to refine LDF or explore alternative methods for comprehensive graft perfusion assessment.