Experimental evaluation of vascular pedicle in island flaps

This study was undertaken to evaluate the influence of variations in the vascular pedicle on survival of island flaps. Abdominal island flaps were raised in 128 rats based on the left superficial epigastric vessels. Our results show that stenosis of about one-third of the original external diameter of the artery and vein of the pedicle in our model did not have any significant influence on the survival of the flap and ligation of the femoral artery distal to the branch to the flap did not produce any statistical difference in the viability of the flap.