Functional Anatomy and Types of Face Transplants

Abstract

The bases of vascularised composite tissue allotransplantation rely on general principles of plastic and reconstructive surgery and on modern reconstructive microsurgery. In traditional autotransplantation, soft tissues in the form of flaps or vascularised anatomical parts are autotransplanted to another part of the same patient in order to reconstruct a defect caused by trauma, burns, atrophy or tumour ablation. Nonvascularised grafts survive by diffusion of nutrients until a new capillary network is created. In contrast, flaps do survive by a complete autonomous vascularisation created by microanastomosis between donor and recipient vessels. For years, these types of flaps have been used in reconstructive surgery, especially for head and neck reconstruction, breast reconstruction and lower limb salvage. An important clinical and experimental research has been implemented during the past two decades to provide evidence of the vascularisation of soft tissues and to develop new types of flaps to form and develop modern plastic reconstructive surgery.