Page 6 - Read Online

Battiston et al. Plast Aesthet Res 2023;10:25 Plastic and
DOI: 10.20517/2347-9264.2022.130
Aesthetic Research

Review Open Access

Soft tissue defects of the hand: etiology and
classification

1
Bruno Battiston , Camillo Fulchignoni 2
1
U.O.C Orthopaedics, Traumatology and Hand Surgery, U.O.D. Microsurgery, C.T.O. Hospital, Turin 10126, Italy.
2
Orthopedics & Hand Surgery Unit, Department of Orthopedics, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, IRCCS-Catholic
University of the Sacred Hearth, Rome 00168, Italy.
Correspondence to: Dr. Camillo Fulchignoni, Orthopedics & Hand Surgery Unit, Department of Orthopedics, Fondazione
Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, IRCCS-Catholic University of the Sacred Hearth, Rome 00168, Italy. E-mail:
camillo.fulchignoni@gmail.com

How to cite this article: Battiston B, Fulchignoni C. Soft tissue defects of the hand: etiology and classification. Plast Aesthet Res
2023;10:25. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2347-9264.2022.130

Received: 10 Nov 2022 First Decision: 25 Apr 2023 Revised: 14 May 2023 Accepted: 23 May 2023 Published: 29 May 2023

Academic Editor: Raymund E. Horch Copy Editor: Yanbing Bai Production Editor: Yanbing Bai

Abstract
Soft tissue defects of the hand may result from trauma, oncological procedures, or severe infections. Different
etiologies have been discussed. In all cases, an accurate clinical examination is mandatory to understand which
structures are involved and what must be reconstructed. It can be helpful to simplify the decision-making process
to classify these lesions. However, there is no consensus on which classification is best to be used among those
described in the literature. This review presents the most common ones, differentiating those classically used to
describe tissue loss consequential to a traumatic event from those used to classify soft tissue defects consequent
to other events.

Keywords: Soft tissue, defect, trauma, oncological, infection, tissue loss

INTRODUCTION
The goals of hand soft tissue defect reconstruction are to provide good soft tissue coverage to protect
underlying structures, to achieve functional outcomes as quickly and as completely as possible, and to
[1,2]
obtain the best possible aesthetic results . Composite reconstructions mainly refer to defects caused by
[3,4]
severe trauma or by oncological or septic treatments. The high functional requirements of the hand with an

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

www.parjournal.net