Survival of a microvascular muscle flap despite the late occlusion of the inflow artery in a neuroischaemic diabetic foot.

A microsurgical free rectus abdominis flap was connected to a popliteodistal vascular reconstruction because of a limb-threatening ischaemic ulcer in an 84 year old diabetic patient. After six months the inflow vessel occluded, but the flap stayed viable, apparently receiving its nutrition through newly developed collaterals.