Tiam Mana Saffari

135 FUNCTIONAL MOTOR RECOVERY OF ANGIOGENESIS OF NERVE ALLOGRAFTS 7 of the sciatic nerve was excised by sharp transection with microsurgical scissors. In group I, the nerve segment was reversed and placed as an interposition autograft with six 10-0 nylon (10-0 Ethilon, Ethicon Inc., NJ, USA) epineural interrupted sutures. In group II, the nerve gap was bridged with a 10-mm nerve allograft using a similar surgical technique and in group III this nerve allograft was wrapped with a pedicled SIEF flap as previously described 19 . In short, the femoral artery was identified in the groin and the superficial inferior epigastric (SIE) vessels were exposed. The SIEF flap was tunneled subcutaneously toward the nerve reconstruction and wrapped around the nerve to surround both nerve anastomoses (Figure 1). Figure 1. Schematic drawing of the superficial inferior epigastric fascia (SIEF) flap harvest. Depicted is the elevation of the flap from distal to proximal (A), providing a 4 x 3 cm adipofascial flap (B) based on the lateral branch of the superficial inferior (SIE) vessels. The SIEF flap was tunneled subcutaneously toward the nerve without vascular twisting of the epigastric trunk (C) and wrapped around the nerve graft reaching both anastomoses (D). The flap edges were trimmed if needed and two 10-0 nylon sutures were placed to secure the position of the SIEF flap (E). With permission of the Mayo Foundation 2019 for Medical Education and Research. All rights reserved.