THE DISTALLY BASED MEDIAL GASTROCNEMIUS FLAP - CASE-REPORT AND ANATOMIC STUDY

We describe a distally based flap of the medial head of the gastrocnem ius, vascularized through a distal pedicle given off by the posterior tibial artery. A literature review showed that this flap and the dista l pedicle had not been described previously as such, although several techniques have been used to cover a substance loss of the distal thir d of the leg using the medial gastrocnemius. The distal artery has a v ariable caliber, and it is not always possible to raise the flap. One patient has been operated on by this technique, and an anatomic study was performed showing that 9 of 30 legs had a distal pedicle larger th an 1 mm, 14 had a pedicle smaller than 1 mm, and 7 had a microscopic p edicle too small to raise a flap.