• Sadettin Çiftci, Egemen Odabaşı, Erkan Sabri Ertas, Ali İhsan Tuğrul, Ali Özdemir, and Mehmet Ali Acar.
• Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Selçuk University Faculty of Medicine, Konya-Türkiye.
• Ulus Travma Acil Cer. 2023 Mar 1; 29 (3): 430434430-434.

BackgroundThe study aimed to evaluate and compare the two different flap techniques used for the reconstruction of soft tissue defects in the elbow region: the lateral arm flap (LAA) and posterior interosseous artery (PIA) flap.MethodsThe retrospective study included 12 patients who underwent surgical treatment for soft tissue defects between 2012-2018 at the clinic. The study evaluated demographic data, flap size, operating time, donor site, flap complications, number of perfora-tors, and functional and cosmetic outcomes.ResultsResults showed that patients who underwent PIA flap had significantly smaller defect size than those who underwent LAA flap (p<0.001). However, there were no significant differences between the two groups (p>0.05). Patients who received PIA flaps had significantly lower QuickDASH scores, indicating better functional results (p<0.05). The operating time was significantly shorter in the PIA group than in the LAA flap group (p<0.05). Additionally, the range of motion (ROM) of the elbow joint was significantly higher among the patients who received the PIA flap (p<0.05).ConclusionThe study concludes that both flap techniques are easy to apply depending on the surgeon's experience, have low complication risk, and provide similar functional and cosmetic results in similar defect sizes.

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