Flap Necrosis

This double-blinded randomized controlled trial aims to investigate the effect of intraoperative dexmedetomidine administration on early flap viability and microvascular integrity in cancer patients undergoing elective microvascular reconstructive surgery. The primary outcome is clinical flap viability within 48 hours postoperatively, assessed using a standardized scoring system based on flap color, temperature, capillary refill time, and tissue turgor. Secondary outcomes include the evaluation of biomarkers related to endothelial glycocalyx degradation (syndecan-1), oxidative stress (SOD-1), inflammation (IL-6, IL-10), thrombosis (PAI-1), and angiogenesis (VEGF), as well as microcirculatory assessment using Sidestream Dark Field (SDF) imaging. The study is designed to determine whether dexmedetomidine improves early surgical outcomes by modulating pathophysiological processes involved in microvascular flap success.

The expectation of our study was to explore the efficacy of using hyperbaric oxygen to rescue flap ischaemic necrosis after breast cancer surgery.

Microdialysis is admitted to be reliable by numerous surgeons to monitor flaps. Nevertheless, a few authors reported follow up with microdialysis in bone free flaps, and they all describe the position of the catheter in the surrounding soft tissue muscle which is not the accurate reflect of bone vascularisation. The aim of this study is to determine the lactate/pyruvate ratio mean value in bone free flaps with a microdialysis catheter directly positioned in the bone tissue.