Free muscle transplantation to provide active finger flexion

Free muscle transplatation is a procedure which involves the transfer of a skeletal muscle from one location in the body to another. Viability is maintained by microvascular anastomoses of the muscle's artery and vein to a suitable artery and vein in the recipient site. Voluntary muscle contraction is obtained by suturing of the muscle's motor nerve to an appropriate motor nerve in the recipient site. Two cases are presented; one using the gracilis and the other using the pectoralis major muscle. The indication for each transplantation was the traumatic loss of long flexor musculature to the digits. In both cases transplanted muscles survived and are functioning well. Excellent grip strength and nearly a full range of finger movement were provided by the transplanted muscle.