Flaps and Grafts

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Overview 

Flaps and grafts are techniques that plastic surgeons utilize to move, manipulate, and adjust tissue.  Examples of when flaps or grafts may be used include: closure of complex wounds, release of scar contractures, cancer reconstruction, and limb salvage operations.  Flaps and grafts may contain skin, fat, muscle, tendon, nerve, cartilage, bone, or a combination of any of them.  Plastic surgeons design the flap or graft to restore form and occasionally function to the treated area.

Grafts are differentiated from flaps in that they do not have their own blood supply and would eventually die if they do not incorporate into the blood supply of the area where they have been placed.  Examples of grafts include skin grafts used to treat large burn or traumatic wounds, carved rib cartilage grafts used to reconstruct an ear for children born without ears, nerve grafts used to restore motion to a paralyzed face, and bone grafts used to span gaps in hand fractures.

In contrast, flaps contain their own blood supply and can be moved to areas which don’t have an abundant blood supply.  Examples of flaps include muscle flaps used to fill and cover pressure sores, geometrically designed tissue used to close cancer defects of the face, and free tissue transfer which utilizes microsurgical techniques to move tissue from one area of the body to a completely different area.