Value of remote ischaemic preconditioning in rat dorsal skin flaps and clamping time

Abstract

Objective: According to previous reports, remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) is a “delay” procedure that is highly likely to be useful for preventing skin flap necrosis. Differences in the extent of necrosis in rat dorsal skin flaps when different clamping times were used in RIPC were compared among the four groups described below.

Methods: Group A was a control group in which no prior ischaemic area was created, and both back legs were devascularised for 15 min in Group B, 30 min in Group C, and 60 min in Group D. The experiments were performed on 10 rats in each group, and the surviving area was measured. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s multiple comparison test were used for analysis, with p < 0.05 regarded as significant.

Results: The surviving area of the skin flap was 15.4 ± 1.8 cm² in Group A, 15.4 ± 2.0 cm² in Group B, 17.9 ± 2.0 cm² in Group C, and 19.2 ± 3.4 cm² in Group D, with significant differences between Groups A and D and between Groups B and D.

Conclusions: RIPC consisting of 60 min of ischaemic preconditioning may be clinically useful as a method of preventing skin flap necrosis.

Keywords:

• clamping time
• delay procedure
• flap necrosis
• remote ischemic preconditioning

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 25861697.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.