Compound or Specially Designed Flaps in the Lower Extremities

Novel and combined tissue transfers from the lower extremity provide new tools to combat soft tissue defects of the hand, foot, and ankle, or fracture nonunion. Flaps can be designed for special purposes, such as providing a gliding bed for a grafted or repaired tendon or for thumb or finger reconstruction. Propeller flaps can cover soft tissue defects of the leg and foot. In repairing severe bone and soft tissue defects of the lower extremity, combined approaches, including external fixators, one-stage vascularized bone grafting, and skin or muscle flap coverage of the traumatized leg and foot, have become popular.