The effects of extraperiosteal and subperiosteal dissection. I. On blood flow in muscle.

Blood flow was studied in traumatized and untraumatized flexor digitorum longus muscles of rabbits before and after surgical dissection of the periosteum of the tibia. Neither extraperiosteal nor subperiosteal dissection diminished blood flow in untraumatized muscles, but when the muscles had been crushed, only extraperiosteal dissection appeared to severely compromise their collateral circulation. Because subperiosteal dissection did not diminish the blood flow in injured muscles, it seems to offer some advantages as a surgical approach to bone in a severely traumatized extremity.