The Eurasian Journal of Medicine
Original Article

Superb Microvascular Imaging at Evaluation of Nonvisible Buried De-epitelized Flap Vascularization in Breast Reconstruction

1.

Department of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, Konya City Hospital, Konya, Turkey

2.

Department of Radiology, Selçuk University Medical Faculty, Konya, Turkey

3.

Department of General Surgery, Selçuk University Faculty of Medicine, Konya, Turkey

4.

Department of Radiation Oncology, Konya City Hospital, Konya, Turkey

Eurasian J Med 2023; 55: 213-217
DOI: 10.5152/eurasianjmed.2023.23063
Read: 806 Downloads: 418 Published: 25 October 2023

Objective: Superb microvascular imaging is a Doppler technique that increases the visibility of small vessels and gives quantitative information about tissue blood supply by measuring the vascular index. In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the long-term and postradiotherapy changes in blood flow of buried de-epitelized flaps in breast reconstruction by using the quantitative values obtained through superb microvascular imaging.

Materials and Methods: Retrospective review of the 14 patients who underwent nipple-sparing breastconserving surgery and immediately breast reconstruction with a de-epitelized extended latissimus dorsi flap was done. In order to demonstrate the effect of radiotherapy on flaps microvascular circulation, patients were evaluated using superb microvascular imaging postoperative first week, first month, and postradiotherapy first week and sixth month. The normal distribution of the data was evaluated with the Shapiro–Wilk test. Paired samples t-test was used for comparisons.

Results: According to the paired samples t-tests, postoperative first week mean vascular index was higher than postoperative first month and postradiotherapy first week (P < .05). Besides, postradiotherapy first week mean vascular index was higher than postoperative first month and also than postradiotherapy sixth month (P < .05).

Conclusion: Radiotherapy can affect the results of breast reconstruction by endothelial and fibrotic injury. In this study, the changes in the microvascular circulation of the latissimus dorsi flap were discussed and found to increase at postoperative and postradiotherapy early period related to inflammation and not decreased significantly at long-term follow-up after radiotherapy.

Cite this article as: Gün Koplay T, Uysal E, Köksal H, Babalıoğlu İ. Superb microvascular imaging at evaluation of nonvisible buried de-epitelized flap vascularization in breast reconstruction. Eurasian J Med., 2023;55(3):213-217.

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