[Experimental study of skin expansion of the grafted free vascularized skin flap]

By using retro-auricular skin after skin expansion to reconstruct auricle, often-times, the retro-auricular skin could not be expanded because of certain reasons such as having burn scar. For this purpose, a new operative technique was designed. The experiment consisted of using 15 rabbits, on one side of the back, a free vascularized skin flap was obtained. Following the anastomosis of the vessels of the flap with that of the back the flap was sutured back in situ. Two weeks after the removal of the sutures, the grafted skin flap was expanded as usual. The routine skin expansion was carried out on the contralateral side as control. The volume of expansion, change of subcutaneous blood vessels, complications from operation, and histological observation were used to compare the results of skin expansion of the two sides. The result showed that there was no significant difference between the types of skin expansion. It was concluded the grafted free vascularized skin flap had no adverse effect on skin expansion.