Comparison of finger tip sensibility following neurovascular Island Flap and V-Y Flap for finger tip reconstruction

Finger tip injuries are one of the most common types of injury. Destruction of the skin in this area leads to destruction of sensory receptors. As hand function is closely related to sensibility of the finger tips, selecting the best procedure of reconstruction that provides the highest degree of sensation is very important. As V-Y Flap and neurovascular Island flap are more common used, the aim of this study is comparison of these two methods for restoration of finger tip sensation. This is a clinical trial study of 70 patients with traumatic finger tip injury who were randomly divided into two groups. Finger tip injuries reconstructed by V-Y Flap were placed in group A and neurovascular Island flap in group B. Sensation of the reconstructed finger tip was checked in all patients by two point discrimination test 1 year after operation. Each group was included 35 patients. Incidence of necrosis, flexion contracture and discomfort of the patients was similar in the two groups. Sensibility of the fingers was 54.8% in group A, and 93.5% in group B, which is statistically significant. (P= 0.0005). Restoration of sensibility to the finger tip is significantly more successful by neurovascular Island flap in comparison to V-Y Flap method for finger tip reconstruction.