In dealing with many skin flap surgeries, the need of accurate and noninvasive method of measuring arterial oxygen tension is growing to assess the circulation of the flap. And the transcutaneous P02 is known to reflect well the arterial P02. Therefore, transcutaneous P0´z monitoring equipment is now routinely used in neonatal intensive care units and is potentially available also to the plastic surgeons.
Hemodilution has been known as a good method to improve circulation and viability of skin flaps by some reporters. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether hemodilution improves circulation of skin flaps or not, by observing the changes of transcutaneous P02 and viability of skin flaps. Transcutaneous P02 of the normal skin and flaps were measured in 10 normal rabbits and 10 hemodiluted rabbits.
The following results were obtained:
1. The mean transcutaneous P02 of the normal rabbit skin was 51.30 10.33 mmHg and 58.5010.34 inmHg before and after hemodilution.
2. The mean transcutaneous P02 of the flaps in the control group at postoperative 1-st, 3rd and 5th days was 22.50 3.79 mmHg, 23.50 4.22 mmHg and 26.10 4.15 mmHg respectively. And that in the hemodiluted group was 26.60 6.01 mmHg, 29.50 -- 6.64 mmHg and 33.40 7.00 mmHg respectively.
3. In comparison to the preoperative normal skin of the same animal, the mean transcutaneous P02 of the flaps in the control group at postoperative 1 st, 3 rd and 5th days was 44.40 5.90 To, 46.99 8.77 % and 51.80 9.04% respectively, and 55.12 7.37: , 58.22 6.33 To and 64.99 4.01 % respectively in the hemodiluted group (% of normal).
This means that the mean transcutaneous P02 of Claps in the hemodiluted group was about 11.7 % higher than that of the control group.
4. The mean flap survival rate at postoperative 5th day was 44.30 4.4017 in the control group and 54.90 6.12 % in the hemodiluted group.
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