Mohamed Abdelmonem Moussa Hussein El Zawahry

Authors

1 Plastic and Burn Surgery, Faculty of Medicine for Boys, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

2 Plastic and Burn Surgery, Police authority hospitals, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Post-traumatic lymphedema is minimally researched; only a few articles are talking about post-traumatic lymphedema at the extremities, and few incidence data are available, but up to 20% of patients with major trauma of the limbs have persistent edema after the injury. Aim and objectives: To evaluate the impact of using free flaps based on lymph axiality on lymph flow restoration (LFR). Subjects and methods: This interventional study was conducted on thirty post-traumatic patients undergoing soft tissue reconstruction surgeries at an extremity at the plastic and reconstructive surgery unit of Azhar University Hospitals. Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the positivity and negativity of Lymph Flow Restoration regarding the presence of a missed gap (M gap) between lymphatic vessel stumps, and there was a highly statistically significant difference between the LFR Positive and LFR negative regarding lymph axiality. Conclusion: Restoration of lymph flow can be achieved with free flap transfer surgery to an extremity without transferring lymph node (LN) surgery or super-microsurgical lymphatic procedures; lymph axiality (LA) without any missed gap between donor and recipient lymph vessels stump is the key for lymph flow restoration.

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