Vascular anatomy of fascia skin flap in leg

The fascial vessels of skin flap in leg were studied systematically and quantitatively so as to find out the survival mechanism of fasciocutaneous flap and provide morphological basis for clinical application. Methods: Thirteen legs from adultcadavers were observed and measured by dissection under operating and biological microscopes, tissue clearing, slice and imageanalysis. Results: There were four types of source artery in fascia of leg and the intermuscular septal cutaneous artery was predominant and often anstomosed as a chain. The source arteries had supra- and subfascial branches in deep fascia and the former wasmore in number and larger in diameter. In the same way, the vascular network was thicker in the suprafascial level than in the subfascial. Aa% of the deep fascia was larger than that of the superficial fascia. Conclusion: The deep fascial vasculature is the basis of the blood supply of fasciocutaneous flap in leg and the suprafascial vascular network is especially important. It is suggestedthat the fascial pedicle should be selected wilers the arterial chain exists.