A Retrospective Matched-Pair Analysis of Long-term Outcomes after Successful Lower Extremity Free Flap Salvage
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Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background Pedicle occlusion with total free flap loss after microvascular lower extremity reconstruction is a considerably rare yet devastating complication. Fortunately, in the majority of cases, emergency salvage takebacks of compromised free flaps are initiated in a timely manner. In this report, we present our analysis of long-term outcomes following transient vascular compromise mitigated through successful free flap salvage in the lower extremity. Methods We performed a single-center retrospective matched-pair analysis of 46 patients with lower extremity free flap reconstructions. Cases underwent successful revisions of microvascular compromise (n = 23), whereas controls had uneventful postoperative courses (n = 23). Patient-reported outcome questionnaires and physical evaluations were used to assess general quality of life, functional outcomes, and cosmesis (Lower Extremity Functional Scale [LEFS], Lower Limb Outcomes Questionnaire [LLOQ], Short Form 36 (SF-36), Vancouver Scar Scale [VSS]). The mean follow-up time was 4.4 years. Results The health-related quality of life assessed by the SF-36 did not differ significantly between both groups in any of the subscales (p ≥ 0.15 for all subscales). Functional outcomes did not show significant differences between both groups according to the LEFS (p = 0.78) and LLOQ (p = 0.45). The overall scar appearance assessed by the VSS showed significantly poorer cosmesis in the re-exploration group (p = 0.014). Conclusion Salvage of compromised free flaps in the lower extremity yields similar long-term outcomes compared to noncompromised free flaps with regard to function and quality of life. However, free flap revisions may lead to impaired scar formation. This study provides further evidence that the opportunity for urgent re-exploration is indispensable.
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Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it