Vascular augmentation of skin and musculocutaneous flaps

In a series of rats, pigs, and dogs, a method for ligating an expendable vessel and placing it under a skin flap or using the vessel to create a new pedicle (neovascular pedicle) for a musculocutaneous flap by the process of neovascularization is demonstrated. No ischemic stimulus is necessary to induce this process of transmural neovascularization.