The Effect of Antioxidants on Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury in Flap Surgery

Abstract

Flap surgery has wide use in plastic surgery in the closure of tissue defects. In spite of the major advances in plastic surgery in the past years, flap surgery is still associated with significant mortality. Ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury, which is a complex injury associated with flap blood flow, is one of the most important causes of flap failure. The main pathophysiology underneath I/R injury is associated with reactive oxygen species, which can be prevented by certain antioxidant applications. Antioxidants have been widely used in flap surgery and I/R injury previously. There have been a lot of articles showing positive effects of antioxidants on I/R injury. In this chapter, we focus the mechanism of I/R injury and how antioxidants can able to diminish the damage, moreover demonstrating the effect of certain antioxidants on I/R injury that has been investigated previously.