[Follow-up and gait study in patients with plastic-surgery-treated foot sole defects]

A long-term follow-up study on 20 patients with soft-tissue coverage of sole defects analysing "sensitivity", "stability" and "function" is presented. The dynamic motion of walking was recorded using an EMED sensor plate. Patients with free flap coverage of the sole only walk over the remaining original plantar skin if at all possible. Patients with transposition flaps, however, were found to have normal gait motion. In spite of these results, the better stability of free flaps than split-thickness skin grafts and the high acceptance by the patients makes the free neurovascular forearm flap a good donor for larger sole defects not suitable for transposition flaps. A new scoring system for free flaps on the sole of the foot is proposed.