MR Angiography

Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is an extremely useful preoperative imaging test for evaluation of the vasculature of donor tissue and recipient tissue to be used in autologous reconstruction. MRA has sufficient spatial resolution to reliably visualize 1 mm perforating vessels and to accurately locate vessels in reference to a patient’s anatomic landmarks without exposing patients to ionizing radiation or iodinated contrast. The use of a blood pool contrast agent and the lack of radiation exposure allow multiple studies of multiple anatomic regions in one examination. The following chapter is a detailed description of our MRA protocol developed with our radiologists with examples that illustrate the utility of MRA in perforator flap reconstruction.