A walking-stalk skin flap or waltzing tube pedicle is a reconstructive technique in which the skin and soft tissue to be used for the

flap Flap may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Flap'' (film), a 1970 American film * Flap, a boss character in the arcade game ''Gaiapolis'' * Flap, a minor character in the film '' Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland'' Biology and he ...

is formed into a tubular pedicle and moved from the source to the target site by anchoring at both ends, periodically severing one end and anchoring it closer to the flap target site. As antibiotics had not yet been invented when this procedure was developed, wrapping the flap in a tube was important because the risk of infection was reduced. The technique was invented by

Harold Gillies Sir Harold Delf Gillies (17 June 1882 – 10 September 1960) was a New Zealand otolaryngologist and father of modern plastic surgery. Early life Gillies was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, the son of Member of Parliament in Otago, Robert Gillies ...

and developed by Archibald McIndoe for the treatment of battle injuries. Archibald Mcindoe was widely recognised for many of these techniques. The technique is now largely redundant due to advances in vascular surgery and

microsurgery Microsurgery is a general term for surgery requiring an operating microscope. The most obvious developments have been procedures developed to allow anastomosis of successively smaller blood vessels and nerves (typically 1 mm in diameter) whic ...

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