Establishment of normal ranges of laser Doppler blood flow in autologous tissue transplants

Over a 3-year period, 136 patients were monitored following free autologous tissue transplantation using a laser Doppler flowmeter linked to a computerized data-acquisition system. This monitoring system has indicated perfusion compromise in free flaps more rapidly than clinical observation alone. Most important, this has resulted in an increase in salvage rate from 50.0 to 82.4 percent. In addition, our overall success rate has increased from 92.6 to 97.8 percent since introducing this monitor clinically. Computerization also has facilitated the collection of data, which has enabled us to establish expected values for postoperative blood flow in several types of donor tissues used for microvascular reconstruction. Finally, this computerized monitoring system has relieved personnel from basing decisions on subjective data.