The free skin flap transfer by microvascular anastomosis has been developed recently for wide employment in reconstructive surgery. Since its introduction by O’Brien and McCraw, the dorsalis pedis free flap has been used in many clinical applicaions.
The dorsalis pedis flap is supplied by the dorsalis artery and its venae comitants and the saphenous veins, its most outstanding contribution is that, unlike any other free flap donor site, it provides both skin and subcutaneous tissue which are thin enough to be such as those in the region of the head and neck, the hand and the foot.
Authors experienced 3 cases of dorsalis pedis free flap transfer to the reconstruction of the head and neck and the dorsum of the hand, one case among the 3 cases, was performed by original dorsalis pedis free flap. The remaining two cases were not used the dorsalis pedis artery because of vascular thrombosis and anatomic variation of the dorsalis pedis artery, therefore we had applied a newly surgical procedure, arteriovenous anastomosis by only using the superficial vein. Authors named this new free flap as venous free flap. We experienced two venous free flaps. One case was complectely succeeded, but other one case was partially succeeded. There will be many problems in venous free flap, but if the problems would be solved, it will behave many advantages.
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