Extremity/Lymphedema Original Article The perforator-centralizing technique for super- thin anterolateral thigh perforator flaps: Minimizing the partial necrosis rate Young Chul Suh, Na Rim Kim, Dai Won Jun, Jung Ho Lee, Young Jin Kim Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Bucheon St. Mary Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon, Korea Background Despite the wide demand for thin flaps for various types of extremity recon- Correspondence: Young Chul Suh struction, the thin elevation technique for anterolateral thigh (ALT) flaps is not very popular Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Bucheon St. because of its technical difficulty and safety concerns. This study proposes a novel perforator- Mary Hospital, College of Medicine, centralizing technique for super-thin ALT flaps and analyzes its effects in comparison with a The Catholic University of Korea, 327 skewed-perforator group. Sosa-ro, Wonmi-gu, Bucheon 14647, Methods From June 2018 to January 2020, 41 patients who required coverage of various Korea Tel: +82-32-340-2095 types of defects with a single perforator-based super-thin ALT free flap were enrolled. The in- Fax: +82-32-340-7227 cidence of partial necrosis and proportion of the necrotic area were analyzed on postopera- E-mail:
[email protected] tive day 20 according to the location of superficial penetrating perforators along the flap. The centralized-perforator group was defined as having a perforator anchored to the middle third of the x- and y-axes of the flap, while the skewed-perforator group was defined as having a perforator anchored outside of the middle third of the x- and y-axes of the flap.