The reconstructive ladder is the set of levels of increasingly complex management of wounds in reconstructive plastic surgery.[1] The surgeon should start on the lowest rung and move up until a suitable technique is reached.
There are several small variations in the reconstructive ladder[2][3] in the scientific literature, but the principles remains the same:
- Healing by secondary intention
- Primary closure
- Delayed primary closure
- Split thickness graft
- Full thickness skin graft
- Tissue expansion
- Random flap
- Axial flap
- Free flap