Reverse sural island flap in coverage of defects lower third of leg: a series of nine cases.

The distally based sural island flap was first described by Masquelet, et al., in 1992. It is a skin island flap supplied by the vascular axis of the sural nerve. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that it can be applied in coverage of difficult wound in the lower third of the leg. We treated nine patients with nine distally based sural island flaps. All the flaps survived, most of the flaps had venous congestion. The largest flap was 10 x 8 cm and Doppler was used in only one flap. This technique is easy and quick to execute without sacrificing major arteries.