Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Pentoxifylline (PTX), as an effective drug to improve blood rheology, has been used as a vasodilator for the treatment of vascular diseases and peripheral vascular disease science 1960s. But the role of PTX on skin blood flow to improve flap survival remains still unclear.
OBJECTIVE: Through the clinical application of PTX therapy, the dynamic observation of random flap to understand that the PTX can promote flap survival and improve blood circulation of flap.
METHODS: A total of 39 patients (27 males and 12 females aging 7-54 years) with skin tissue defect undergoing random flap repairing were selected from Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery, First Hospital of Hebei Medical University. The 39 cases were randomly divided into control group and drug group. Patients in the drug group were given intravenous injection of 250 mL PTX at day 2 after random flap operation, once a day, until 14 days after flap repairing surgery. On the first day after flap pedicle surgery, 250 mL PTX sodium chloride injection was intravenously given, once a day, until 7 days after flap pedicle surgery. The control group was not given PTX treatment. The value of blood perfusion (PU) was measured using laser-Doppler blood reperfusion image after flap transplantation, before and after pedicle division.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: All 39 patients were completely cured and discharged, with no interruption experiments. Before pedicle division, PU value at distal flap in both drug and control groups were increased obviously, and the PU value in the drug group was significantly higher than control group (P < 0.05); after pedicle division, the PU value in the two groups were decreased, and there was no significant difference between the two groups (P > 0.05). Prior to pedicle division, the PU value of pedicle was gradually decreased and then increased in the drug group, and that in the control group was gradually increased. On the seventh day, the PU value of pedicle was stable in the drug group, and there was no significant difference between the two groups (P > 0.05); after pedicle division immediately, the PU values of pedicle were decreased in the two groups, and then the increase in the drug group was remarkable compared to control group (P < 0.05). Two sets of random flaps all survived, and skin defects were successfully repaired after pedicle division. PTX can markedly increase blood perfusion after random flap transplantation, promote flap survival and pedicle division in an early stage, and effectively shorten the healing time.