Title : Roel of flap to finger glucose ratio on predicting vascular compromise in free flap
Abstract:
Free flaps have become a mainstay for tissue reconstruction in many types of oncological surgery. However, vascular compromise remains the main cause of flap failure and is costly. In detecting early signs of vascular compromise, lacking of objective parameter and depending on the ability and experience of the observer are the major challenge. A total of 138 free flaps were included in our study. Among these, vascular compromise occurred in 47 free flaps. We conducted a prospective study of a cohort of patients who underwent free flap reconstruction to compare clinical examination with flap to finger glucose ratio for postoperative monitoring. Flap to finger glucose ratio were used in 47 vascular compromised free flaps. Flap partial necrosis were found in patients with flap to finger glucose ratio lower than 0.7 and server vascular compromise was seen if flap to finger glucose ratio is lower than 0.5. There were few cases of overdiagnosis using flap to finger glucose ratio. In our practice, flap to finger glucose ratio could serve as a predictor of vascular compromise, which compliment clinical evaluation. Due to its features of cheap, convenient and fast, oncological nursing ability was improved in post-reconstruction surgery.
Audience Take Away Notes:
• In post-reconstruction surgery, whether vascular compromise happened hard to determine, especially for novice nurse. Flap to finger glucose ratio could help them to monitor free flap in clinical nursing
• Free flap condition and degree of necrosis usually hard to determine. Flap to finger glucose ratio serve as an objective parameter in free flap nursing and make the nursing work more efficient
• We introduced a cheat, convenient and fast method for determine vascular compromise after reconstruction surgery. Flap to finger glucose ratio improves accuracy of free flap condition and nursing ability
