Inpatient Flap Monitoring after Deep Inferior Epigastric Artery Perforator Flap Breast Reconstruction: How Long Is Long Enough?

Abstract

All of the microvascular issues were detected in the initial 23 hours after surgery, leading to prompt flap salvage. The results of this study bring into question the need for lengthy flap monitoring protocols and suggest that shorter inpatient, or even observation admissions, may be reasonable, particularly when flap monitoring protocols incorporating continuous noninvasive flap monitoring are used.