THE TIME SEQUENCE OF THE DELAY PHENOMENON - WHEN IS A SURGICAL DELAY EFFECTIVE - AN EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY

Abstract

We have shown previously that when a flap is delayed, the maximal anatomic effect on the arterial side of the circulation is focused at the level of the reduced-caliber choke vessels that link adjacent vascular territories. These anastomotic vessels were noted to increase in size to the dimension of true anastomoses. However, we did not define when this occurred. The present experiment therefore was designed to elucidate the chronologic sequence of events that occur in the "choke" vessels using a rabbit flank skin flap as the experimental model. A long two-territory osteocutaneous flank flap was designed on one side of each rabbit (n = 30), with the opposite unoperated side serving as a cont..