Covering Soft Tissue Defects within the Thumb: an Overview of Reviews

Treatment of thumb soft tissue defects often requires the use of non-standard surgical techniques such as local flaps, regional pedicled flaps, cross-finger flaps and homodigital island flaps. A review of articles from the Medline, PubMed and Scopus databases on the effectiveness and popularity of the most commonly used methods of covering thumb tissue defects is presented. Literature review indicate that all methods of fitting thumb tissue defects are similarly effective, but have different pros and cons. Simple local flaps are technically easier and safer, but they have a smaller range and do not recover sensation. Long-pedicled flaps are technically demanding, but they allow you to reach the defects on the entire thumb and provide sensory recovery.