Microsurgical autotransplantation of the greater omentum to a lower limb in patients with critical ischaemia accompanying thromboangiitis obliterans

: The authors are sharing their five-year experience gained at the Department of Vascular Surgery of the Samara State Medical University in performing microsurgical autotransplantation of the greater omentum to a lower extremity in patients presenting with critical ischaemia accompanied by thromboangiitis obliterans. A total of twenty-five operations of microsurgical autotransplantation of the greater omentum on a vascular pedicle were carried out in twenty patients diagnosed with lower limb critical ischaemia accompanied by thromboangiitis obliterans, for five of them underwent surgery simultaneously on the both lower extremities. With an overall number of 22 extremities eventually spared, the remote limb-salvage rate amounted to 88%. The preoperative preparation procedures as well as surgical technique are discussed in detail.