Oxygen tension and acid-base balance in wounds in bipedicle tube flaps. An experimental study.

pO2, pCO2, pH and lactate concentration were measured in wound fluid accumulated in steel wire mesh cylinders implanted in both ends of bipediclc tube flaps. Cylinders implanted in skin folds were used as controls Wounds in bipedicle tube flaps as well as in control tissue were hypoxic and acidotic during the first 3-week period. During the following 3-week period the oxygen tension and acid-base status were normal in control tissue, while a certain degree of hypoxia and hypercapnia persisted in skin flap granulation tissue. By week 7 the nutritional environment was normal also in the flaps. An imbalance thus existed between the nutritional supply and the metabolic requirement in the wounds in both the skin folds and in the skin flaps up to week 4. In the skin flaps this inbalance persisted up to week 7.