[Treatment of loss of substance of the ankle or heel in adults. Apropos of a series of 88 cases].

Cover of ankle and heel defects is always a difficult problem for the plastic surgeon. This complexity is due to the poor blood supply and the limited amount of surrounding soft tissue, as well as the high incidence of adjacent lesions. Apart from pressure sores in bedridden patients, skin defects in active patients, which require reconstruction to a state as close as possible to the premorbid state, are relatively rare. A plastic surgery unit is faced with this problem four or five times a year, on average. This low incidence means that each patient constitutes a particular case. There are no series in the international literature sufficiently large to establish any statistically valid data. The authors analyse a series of 88 cases of ankle or heel defects treated between 1982 and 1989 in the plastic surgery unit of CHU de Tours. They report their experience of the techniques used and define the indications in relation to the nature of the structures exposed and the weight-bearing or non-weight-bearing nature of the defect to be covered.