Summary: Telemedicine holds vast amounts of potential in changing the way outpatient plastic and reconstructive surgery is practiced. Before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, video conferencing was used by a small fraction of medical specialties. However, since the start of the pandemic, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the largest private health insurance companies have relaxed regulations to allow the majority of specialties to use video conferencing in lieu of in-person visits. Most importantly, video conferencing minimizes patient and physician exposure in situations such as these, and decreases risk in the immunocompromised population. Video conferencing, which has been shown to be just as safe and efficacious in treating patients, offers the ability to follow up with physicians while saving travel time and travel-related expenses. This in turn correlates with increased patient satisfaction. Video conferencing also allows physicians to expand their reach to patients in rural areas seeking advanced professional advice. Incorporating video conferencing into existing practices will make for a more efficient practice, improve patient satisfaction, and decrease cost to patients and the health care system.

The reverse sural adipofascial flap (RSAF) is used to reconstruct challenging wounds of the foot and ankle. It offers several advantages over the traditional reverse sural flap, including less venous congestion. To complete the reconstruction, split-thickness skin grafting (STSG) may be done immediately or in a delayed fashion; however, both scenarios result in suboptimal take rates and prolonged healing. An acellular dermal matrix (ADM; Integra; Ethicon Inc, Somerville, New Jersey) and negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT) combined with RSAF followed by delayed STSG may decrease wound healing time.In this study, 8 patients underwent reconstruction of lower-extremity wounds with RSAF. Four patients underwent RSAF with immediate STSG, and 4 underwent RSAF with placement of the ADM and a vacuum-assisted closure device, with STSG at a later date.The 4 patients who underwent RSAF and immediate STSG had an average time to heal of 141.2 days, and 2 patients required reoperation. The 4 patients who underwent RSAF with an ADM and NPWT had an average time to heal of 104.5 days, and 1 patient required reoperation. Average time until STSG was 41.5 days. The latter group demonstrated a reduction in time to heal by an average of 36.7 days, or 25%. All 8 patients achieved successful wound closure.The RSAF is a durable option for complex lower-extremity reconstruction. Interim placement of ADM and NPWT may increase STSG take rates. Using this technique in conjunction with RSAF may decrease the overall healing time compared with RSAF with immediate STSG.