Abstract
Fat necrosis remains a serious complication in reconstructive
flaps. In clinical setting, it is well known that fat tissue is
more susceptible to ischemic events. We aimed to evaluate early
histological and biochemical changes of adipofascial tissue in an
experimantal model. An epigastric flap model in rats was used to
evaluate the effect of ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) injury on
adipofascial tissue. Two groups of animals (one with ischemia
alone and other ischemia-reperfusion group) were used to evaluate
the degree of histological edema, congestion and extravascular
bleeding, and early biochemical alterations within the
adipofascial flaps. The biochemical parameters included
glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA). In each group,
contralateral groin subcutaneous adipose tissue served as control.
These evaluations were compared to normal unmanipulated,
contralateral abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue. The
ischemia-reperfused flap group showed histologically significantly
much edema congestion and bleeding than the control groups (