Surgical Flap

A surgical flap is a technique used in plastic and reconstructive surgery in which a section of tissue that keeps its own blood supply is lifted from a donor site on the body and moved to a recipient site to repair a defect. Because a flap carries its own blood supply with it, it differs from a skin graft, which instead relies on new blood vessels growing in from the recipient site to survive. Flaps are used to fill defects left by injury or the surgical removal of tissue, to close wounds that cannot be stitched directly or that heal poorly, to reduce tension across a wound to limit scarring, and to reconstruct complex structures such as the breast, jaw, and face. The simplest type, a local flap, stretches tissue from an area next to the defect. A regional or pedicled flap stays connected to its original blood supply by a stalk of tissue while it is moved. The most complex type, a free or microvascular flap, has its blood vessels completely cut and then surgically reattached at the new site using an operating microscope.