Arterialized venous toenail flaps for treating nail loss in the fingers

Ten arterialized venous toenail flaps with two venous pedicles, one of whic h was anastomosed to a digital artery and the other to a dorsal vein of the finger, were used in nine patients to reconstruct nail loss due to trauma. Four flaps were taken from the lateral part of the big toe and six flaps f rom the second toe. Four toenail flaps with pulp and three flaps with the d istal half of distal phalanx were used. Nine flaps survived completely and one had partial necrosis, All showed excellent aesthetic and functional res ults except for one case with minimal deformity in growth of the nail. The mean operating time was 2 hours.