Enhanced capillary blood flow in rapidly expanded, random-pattern flaps

Rapid-sequence expansion has been shown to protect skin from the hypoxia induced by random flap elevation and to increase the surviving length of random flaps compared with those based on delayed but nonexpanded skin (1). The present study was undertaken to quantitatively examine the effects of rapid, sequential skin expansion on capillary blood flow in the porcine random flap model in order to determine the relation between the increased survivability of expanded random flaps and capillary blood flow.