FOOT SALVAGE BY DELAYED REIMPLANTATION OF SEVERED METATARSAL AND DIGITAL PADS USING A BIPEDICLE DIRECT FLAP TECHNIQUE

A six-year-old, female German shepherd dog was presented for complete severence of the metatarsal and digital pads from the left hind limb. Foot-pad salvage was accomplished by temporarily grafting the severed pads to the cutaneous trunci muscle of the lateral abdominal waif. Sev en days later the denuded foot was secured beneath a bipedicle flap in corporating the grafted pad tissues. Staged division of the two cutane ous pedicles 14 days after direct flap transfer completed the reimplan tation procedure. Direct flap transfer in this case provided a thick l ayer of subcutaneous fat and collagen as a substitute for the excised pad cushion. Formation of a durable corneal layer required approximate ly five months, necessitating external protection of the grafted tissu es in the interim. This case demonstrates the clinical potential of pa d grafting for resurfacing of limbs devoid of all pad tissues.