A dorsalis pedis venous flap containing a U-shaped venous arch for the reconstruction of fingertip defects

In small-area soft tissue defects of the fingers, venous flaps have the advantages of easy design and harvesting, and also a thin and flexible texture. Although the artery-vein-vein (A-V-V) pattern is the safest pattern, the tiny veins in the finger pulp make anastomosis difficult. We have designed a modified blood flow pattern flap using the dorsum of the foot as the donor site and anastomosing the U-shaped blood vessels in the venous flap with the two digital arteries in an artery-vein-artery (A-V-A) pattern to reconstruct the digital arterial arch without the need for venous anastomosis. Our study included 22 patients with 23 fingertip defects. In the 23 fingers, 18 flaps survived completely and four had only partial marginal necrosis. The donor site healed well without significant scar hyperplasia.Level of evidence: IV.