With the passage of time, certain hand surgery procedures are anecdotally dubbed “workhorse” techniques. These are procedures that are extremely reliable and have repeatedly demonstrated good results. However, with time, paradigms undergo shifts, and this is as true for hand surgery as any other field. In this article, we will describe the use of three new “workhorse” flaps that we have found to have reliable results in complex hand reconstruction: the pedicled radial forearm fascia flap for dorsal hand reconstruction, the free anterolateral thigh flap for mangled hand reconstruction, and the medial femoral condyle vascularized bone graft for scaphoid fracture nonunion reconstruction.
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