Studying the blood pressures of antegrade and retrograde internal mammary vessels: Do they really work as recipient vessels?

The proximal ends of the internal mammary (IM) vessels are now the most common recipient vessels for breast reconstruction. On the other hand, bilateral deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEP) flaps are often needed according to the territory and the volume needed for reconstruction. The usefulness of retrograde IM vessels as second recipients has recently been reported, but there are very few quantitative studies on the hydrodynamics of the retrograde IM vessels. Since the flow is dependent on the pressure differential, the blood pressures of the antegrade IM artery (AIMA), antegrade IM vein (AIMV), retrograde IM artery (RIMA), retrograde IM vein (RIMV), and the recirculated intraflap vein (FV) were investigated to solve this question and confirm the reliability and usefulness of retrograde IM vessels.

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