A Novel Utility of Bilobed Flap for Amputation Stump Coverage

Abstract

Summary: Preparing a good amputation stump with a well-padded, stable, sensate, and painless soft tissue coverage is of utmost importance to achieve early ambulation and return the patient to the daily activity level. When the primary closure is impossible or fails to achieve a good closure, secondary closure must be considered. To date, no literature reported the use of bilobed flaps for stump defect closure. We aimed to utilize this technically easy procedure for better management of defect closure on amputated limb stumps that often cause complex clinical problems. This is a retrospective observational study in limb amputation patients with various etiologies: crush injury, chronic limb necrosis, and amniotic band syndrome. All patients had stump defect closure with bilobed flap and were observed with a minimum of 6-months follow-up to evaluate the wound healing, the use of prosthesis, and the complications. A bilobed flap was performed in 11 amputation cases as the final closure (64% trans-femoral, 18% trans-tibial, 9% trans-humeral, and 9% trans-radial). The mean follow-up time was 8.5 ± 2.21 months. Most of the patients healed uneventfully with the optimal use of prosthesis in a mean healing time of 29.64 ± 7.49 days. The bilobed flap potentially provides a good amputation stump coverage that is ideal for prosthesis fitting. This simple procedure can be done without the necessity of special microsurgery settings. Thus, when the neighboring tissue is available and mobile enough to be transposed to the stump defect, a bilobed flap can be considered.