Decision between contralateral and ipsilateral DIEP flap harvesting for unilateral breast reconstruction

ConclusionsThermographic assessment of the abdominal skin after hypothermia is easy to conduct and gives reproducible information about different areas of skin perfusion quality. The difference in rewarming speed from left to right is thought to be due to a larger diameter deep inferior epigastric artery, which translates into a superior perfusion, but does not necessarily correlate with the size of the perforators itself. The presented technique offers the potential to improve outcome, especially by lowering perfusion-related complications and reducing operation time by fast dissection of the non-dominant side while carefully dissecting the area of interest with fast thermographic rewarming results, and must therefore be investigated in future studies by measuring objective outcome results.Level of Evidence: Level III, risk/prognostic
Source: European Journal of Plastic Surgery - Category: Cosmetic Surgery Source Type: research