[Prediction of skin flap viability by laser Doppler scanning]

Twelve female pigs were used for the experiment. An island flap (8 cm x 15 cm) pedicled with the superficial circumflex iliac vessels was elevated on the flank of the pig. The blood flow of the flap was measured with laser doppler scanning at different times, i.e. before and after flap elevation; before clipping the feeding artery of the flap and 9 hours after clipping the artery; 5 minutes, 20 minutes, 40 minutes, 1 hour and 40 hours after reperfusion. The flap viability was also examined with naked eye and fluorography. Biopsy examinations were used as gold standard of flap viability. The results showed that predicting accuracy of flap viability by naked eye was 76%; fluorography was 94% and laser doppler scanning was 91.3%. No significant difference was found between the results from fluorography and laser doppler scanning while there was significant difference between naked eye and laser doppler scanning. The authors discussed the clinical applications of predicting skin flap viability.