The use of a skin paddle-containing vein graft for arteriovenous looping in two-stage free flap reconstruction of lower extremities.

The skin paddle-containing vein graft is an effective modification of the regular vein graft for AV looping procedure. The skin paddle prevents the underlying AV loop from compression, kinking and twisting during maturation. It also aids assessing patency of the AV loop and avoids the formation of adhesion between the AV loop and the surrounding tissue.