ReviewFrontiers in surgery2023
Postoperative free flap monitoring in reconstructive surgery-man or machine?
Review in Frontiers in surgery, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diagnostic Accuracy of AI in Prediction and Assessment of Compromised Free Flaps: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
- Role of artificial intelligence in head and neck surgery - A narrative review.Turkish journal of surgery · 2026Article
- Identifying Venous Insufficiency in Head and Neck Reconstruction Flaps Using Machine Learning and Deep Learning Methods.Head & neck · 2026Article
- Article
- Detection of Microvascular Failure Using Bioimpedance and Sensor-derived Clinical Indicators: A Preliminary Study.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2026Article
- Macro Responsibility in the Microvascular World: Nurse Experiences in Flap Care, a Phenomenological Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Research progress in flap temperature monitoring technologies and applications after transplantation.APL bioengineering · 2026Review
- Adipofascial Flap Monitoring Using Masimo Regional Oximetry: A Case Report and Literature Review on Near-Infrared Spectroscopy for Flap Monitoring.Archives of plastic surgery · 2026Article
- Complication drivers in head and neck free flap surgery: A single-center predictive analysis.Oral and maxillofacial surgery · 2026Article
- Review
- Autonomization of Microvascular Free Flaps in Reconstructive Surgery: A Narrative Review.Microsurgery · 2026Review
- A remote monitoring system based on deep learning for real-time assessment of free flaps.PloS one · 2026Article
- Trends in Imaging Studies for Flap Reconstruction Surgery: A Bibliometric Analysis.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2026Article
- Deep learning-based ordinal classification overcomes subjective assessment limitations in intraoral free flap monitoring.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Review
- Application of a Flash Glucose Monitoring System for the Evaluation of Blood Flow in Free Flaps.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2025Article
- Evaluating SnapshotNIR for Tissue Oxygenation Measurement Across Skin Types After Mastectomy.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Microvascular reconstruction in oral and maxillofacial surgery: a Europe-wide data collection.Oral and maxillofacial surgery · 2025Article
- Effects of modified reverse sural neurocutaneous flap repair on wound healing in patients with soft tissue defects of the foot and ankle.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2025Article
- Is It Possible to Monitor the Safest Time to Perform Secondary Surgery on Free Flaps? A Clinical Evaluation of the TewameterMedicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Free tissue transfer is widely used for the reconstruction of complex tissue defects. The survival of free flaps depends on the patency and integrity of the microvascular anastomosis. Accordingly, the early detection of vascular comprise and prompt intervention are indispensable to increase flap survival rates. Such monitoring strategies are commonly integrated into the perioperative algorithm, with clinical examination still being considered the gold standard for routine free flap monitoring. Despite its widespread acceptance as state of the art, the clinical examination also has its pitfalls, such as the limited applicability in buried flaps and the risk of poor interrater agreement due to inconsistent flap (failure) appearances. To compensate for these shortcomings, a plethora of alternative monitoring tools have been proposed in recent years, each of them with inherent strengths and limitations. Given the ongoing demographic change, the number of older patients requiring free flap reconstruction, e.g., after cancer resection, is rising. Yet, age-related morphologic changes may complicate the free flap evaluation in elderly patients and delay the prompt detection of clinical signs of flap compromise. In this review, we provide an overview of currently available and employed methods for free flap monitoring, with a special focus on elderly patients and how senescence may impact standard free flap monitoring strategies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.