The distally based sural artery flap.

The sural artery flap is a distally based fasciocutaneous flap. It is based on a reverse flow through anastomoses between the peroneal artery and the communicating vascular network of the medial sural nerve. In the difficult area of defects in the lower leg and the ankle and heel region, it has a wide variety of indications, even in vascularly compromised patients. It has the largest arc of rotation of all flaps that have been described in this region. The most important advantage is that it does not compromise a major artery. Furthermore, it is simple to dissect and has a low donor morbidity. A series of 15 patients is described in which we covered defects in the lower leg, malleolar, and heel regions. Seven patients were vascularly compromised seriously. Twelve flaps survived completely, two survived partially, and one flap failed.