An investigation of venous pressure and oxygen tension in human extremities: an experimental study of survival in pedicled venous flaps.

The pedicled venous flap is used at various sites, such as the finger, forearm, and leg. The authors previously reported that the reasons for the viability of such flaps, based on the digital dorsal vein and used for repairing digital skin defects in the earlier study, were high venous pressure or oxygen tension, as well as the possible effects of plasmatic imbibition and outflow through the draining vein. To investigate the importance of venous pressure and oxygen tension in the survival of these flaps at other sites in the body, measurements were made comparing these parameters in the digital vein, cephalic vein, and greater saphenous vein, which are all used clinically as draining veins in pedicled venous flaps. Although measurements in other sites were consistently lower than in the digital dorsal vein, since these other venous flaps are nevertheless viable in the clinical situation, their viability may not be due only to relatively high venous pressure and oxygen tension. The authors intend to carry out further comparative studies on plasmatic imbibition in the flap and outflow through the draining vein.