Vaskulárna medicína 2/2021

Free flaps in management of critical limb ischemia

A part of patients with critical limb ischemia do not heal despite successful endovascular or surgical intervention. Every fourth patient undergo major amputation. The free flap transfer in common practice would be the one of the options how to improve this situation. These free flaps allow to cover large defects with the exposure of deep structures, unable to heal by conventional methods. Simultaneously, free flaps improve the outflow, which leads to better patency of revascularisation. Successful revascularisation in combination with the free flap transfer in patients with critical limb ischemia achieves high percentage of limb salvage and also good long-term prognosis. Despite these advantages, the free flap transfers are still not common in Slovakia.

Keywords: critical limb ischemia, free flap, microsurgery, revascularisation