The skin and soft tissue defects or ulceration of the wight-bearing part of the sole was difficult to repair with medial plantar island flap, but would be treated with retrograde island flap carrying plantar metatarsal arteries as pedicle. Ten flaps were applied in 9 patients. They had either indolent ulcer or skin defect secondary to excision of painful corn or callosities of the front part of the sole. The flaps were 3 cm to 5 cm long and 3 cm to 4 cm wide, and they all survived following retrograde transfer. The patients were followed up for 1 to 10 years. It was found that the patients could bear weight on the operated foot and could walk without pain or lameness. The flaps were resistant to abrasion from long-time walking. It was concluded that this kind of flap was best suitable to repair the ulcers and defects over the front part of the sole despite there were some minor shortcomings such as the size of the flaps available was small and the donor site required split skin graft for coverage.
In order to improve the therapeutic effect of non-neural tissue in bridging the peripheral nerve defect and increase the blood supply of the implant, the silicone tube was chosen to bridge the gap, and the vessel bundle was inserted into the tube. The procedures were performed as following: resected the pseudoneuroma and enveloped the proximal and the distal ends in a silicone tube, and then sutured the epineurium and the tube wall with 7/0 stitch. In patients, eleven cases with fifteen nerves were treated, including seven median nerves, five ulnar nerves and three radial nerves. The lengths of the nerve defects were within 3 cm in 13 nerves and 3 cm-5 cm in 2 nerves. They were followed up from one to five years and the result was excellent (M4S4) in 8 nerves, good (M3S3) in 3 and poor (M1S1) in 2. It was discussed that the indication for the procedure should be included: the nerve defect could not be sutured directly, and the patient would not agree to use his own nerve for graft.
In the repair of the defect of peripheral nerve, it was necessary to find an operative method with excellent therapeutic effect but simple technique. Based on the experimental study, one case of old injury of the ulnar nerve was treated by end-to-side neurorraphy with the intact median nerve. In this case the nerve defect was over 3 cm and unable to be sutured directly. The patient was followed up for fourteen months after the operation. The recovery of the sensation and the myodynamia was evaluated. The results showed that: the sensation and the motor function innervated by ulnar nerve were recovered. The function of the hand was almost recovered to be normal. It was proved that the end-to-side neurorraphy between the distal stump with the intact median nerve to repair the defect of the ulnar nerve was a new operative procedure for nerve repair. Clinically it had good effect with little operative difficulty. This would give a bright prospect to repair of peripheral nerve defect in the future.