Indian Journal of Legal Medicine

Flaps are important in covering defects caused by trauma, tumor excision, lower limb vascular ulcer, or diabetes mellitus. Distal flap necrosis is one of the most common postoperative complications for flaps, leading to increased morbidity, prolonged hospital stay, and the need for repeat surgery. Pentoxifylline (PTXF) is a vasoactive agent that improves the flow of blood by reducing its viscosity. In our patient, we studied the usefulness of pentoxifylline as an adjuvant to prevent flap necrosis.

Chemicals can harm cells directly by various mechanisms and cause an exothermic reaction which can cause thermal burns in addition to chemical burns. Acids and alkali are the two broad categories of chemicals that can cause burns and alkali burns have greater depth of injury than acids. Copious irrigation of chemical burns is the most critical step in management at presentation followed by which various novel methods could be implemented for enhanced healing of chemical burns such as topical wound management including sucralfate cream application, platelet rich plasma application, low level laser therapy, etc. in addition to usual management strategies used in burns patients.