Visualizing the Pharmacologic Preconditioning Effect of Botulinum Toxin Type A by Infrared Thermography in a Rat Pedicled Perforator Island Flap Model.

Abstract

Surgical delay can improve flap viability, leading to vasodilation, neovascularization, and vessel reorganization. Experiments suggest a similar positive effect of botulinum toxin type A on pedicled flap viability. However, whether it may convert choke anastomoses into true anastomoses and how to identify the optimal timing for flap transfer remain unclear. One hundred fifty-four Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into a control group, three saline injection groups, and three botulinum toxin type A injection groups defined by time of injection (2, 3, and 4 weeks before flap harvest). A pedicled 11 × 3-cm flap was marked on the unilateral dorsum of each rat. Before flap harvest, the flap donors were assessed by infrared thermal imaging, postmortem arteriography, immunohistochemical staining of CD31, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Flap survival area percentage was measured on postoperative day 7. In the control and saline groups, infrared thermography showed three independent white hotspots interspaced by red zones over flaps, whereas it presented a continuous white band in the botulinum toxin type A groups. There was a significant increase in flap survival area, flap surface temperatures, numbers of identifiable vessels in the choke zones, microvascular density, and vascular endothelial growth factor concentration in the botulinum toxin type A groups. Botulinum toxin type A can convert choke anastomoses into true anastomoses, and its preconditioning effect cannot increase over time; it is appropriate to choose the timing point when the infrared thermal images show a continuous white band existing over flaps for flap transfer.