Abstract: Ischemia-reperfusion injury often occurs after skin flap transplantation, and may lead to partial or complete necrosis of the skin flap. However, the pathogenesis of flap ischemia reperfusion injury remains unclear. Previous studies imply that its pathogenesis may be related to cell apoptosis, inflammatory response, tissue microcirculation disorder, and cell oxidative damage. The treatments for reducing the flap ischemia-reperfusion injury in previous studies include the use of ischemic preconditioning, drug intervention, reduction of inflammatory response, transplantation of stem cells or stem cell-based gene therapy, extracorporeal shock wave, antioxidant response, and inhibition of cell apoptosis. This article reviews the recent experimental researches on skin flap ischemia-reperfusion injury treatment and their clinical applications, which aims to provide theoretical basis and new ideas for the treatment of skin flap ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Key words: flap, ischemia reperfusion, injury, treatment