ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Clinical Infectious Diseases
This article is part of the Research TopicRecent Advancements and New Developments in Reconstructive SurgeryView all 15 articles
The free cMSAP flap for treatment of chronic osteomyelitis with complex soft-tissue defects in foot and ankle
Provisionally accepted
- The first affiliated Hospital of Hunan normal University Hunan Provincial people's Hospital, Changsha, China
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Chronic osteomyelitis with complex soft-tissue defects is very difficult to treat, numerous reconstructive strategies have been described for repairing soft tissue defect combined with chronic osteomyelitis with complex soft-tissue defects in the foot and ankle. The free chimeric medial sural artery perforator (cMSAP) flap has been recommended for reconstructing the complicated wounds. We conducted a retrospective study on 16 patients who accepted cMSAP flap to reconstruct the soft tissue defect in the setting of chronic osteomyelitis in foot and ankle from January 2021 to December 2023. The effect of surgery and the functional evaluation of the limb were assessed. Results displayed that no chronic osteomyelitis was recurrent, no cases needed bulky flap defatting and the functions of the lower extremity were all improved at the last follow-up. The free cMSAP flap is a good alternative for reconstructing complex soft tissue defects with deep dead space in the setting of chronic osteomyelitis in the foot and ankle.
Keywords: chronic osteomyelitis, Soft-tissue defects, cMSAP flap, Foot, Ankle
Received: 20 Aug 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cao, Xu, Xiao, Xu, Chen and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yongqiang Xu, regou1023@163.com
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