A review of therapeutic angiogenesis and consideration of its potential applications to plastic and reconstructive surgery

The use of exogenous agents to stimulate the growth of new blood vessels into ischaemic tissue is a potentiallyrevolutionary therapy in a wide variety of clinical specialties. Therapeutic angiogenesis research has been mostly confined to ischaemia of the heart and the lower limb. There has been relatively little research into the potential applications of the technique to plastic, reconstructive and burns surgery. In this paper, relevant published work is reviewed and potential applications of therapeutic angiogenesis to our specialty are considered.