Reconstructive Surgery

Many reconstructive techniques have been developed in reconstructive plastic surgery to deal with the problems arising following removal of skin growths or after injuries. These techniques are based on the concept of removing flap, i.e. tissue, from one part of the body and transferring it to cover a histological gap. The flap may be just skin; skin and fat; muscle; muscle, fat and skin; fascia; or it may even contain bone. The flap perfusion may be random and thus the flap may be transferred to a neighboring skin area, or it may be axial, from a specific blood vessel, and can only be transferred with microsurgery techniques (free flap).

When a flap is transferred to a neighboring area without being fully detached, then the procedure is not major, as it does not last longer than 1 to 1.5 hours at the most. In this case, the patient may be discharged on the same day. Such techniques are performed to remove burn scars, large pigmented moles or skin cancers, to cover ulcers and to release contractures (Z-plasty). In any case, the technique to be performed will be selected by the surgeon, provided the extent of the damage has been assessed.