Change in the Lower Leg Muscle Stiffness Following Peroneal Artery-based Flap

Overview

In the field of reconstructive microsurgery, donor site morbidity after free flap harvest is one of the key factors to consider when choosing among different options of free flap. Peroneal artery-based free flap, such as fibula flap or peroneal flap, is one of the popular options of free flap. There are a plenty of literature using a variety of modalities to evaluate the donor site morbidity after free fibula harvest, such as gait analysis. Elastography has been used to evaluate the stiffness change of soft tissue, such as skeletal muscle, or liver. The purpose of this study is to use elastography to evaluate the stiffness of lower leg muscle after peroneal artery-based free flap harvest.

A total of twenty-three patients will be recruited at National Taiwan University Hospital Yunlin Branch. All of them will receive fibula flap or peroneal flap harvest operations. At the time points of pre-operation, 1-month post-operation, 3-month post-operation, and 6-month post-operation, the muscles of both legs of each patient will be evaluated by elastography, and the function of both legs will be evaluated by American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Score (AOFAS). Paired t-test will be used to compare the results of each evaluations.

Conditions