The main aim and task of the investigation was to present clinico-anatomical substantiation for plastic operations with the application of flaps with the axial type of blood circulation in treatment of this category of patients. The investigation included 348 clinical cases (for exact statistical data); 65 volunteers (for the assessment of physiological parameters) and 16 topographo-anatomical preparations (variants of the vascular network of the leg). The methods of clinical and rentgenological control were used. The work consisted of 4 stages: 1) clinico-statistical analysis by the materials of 348 clinical observations which allowed to establish the dependence of functional results of the treatment on the sizes of leg soft tissue defects; 2) topographo-anatomical investigations which allowed the topography of the leg vessels to be associated with the typical disposition of the flaps with the axial type of blood supply; 3) physiological investigation using ultrasonic dopplerography and active distance thermography on whose basis the methods were created for exact identification of the sites of the outlet of cutaneous arteries and finding the zones of optimal blood supply of the complex skin flaps being formed; 4) clinical approbation of the results of the investigation. The operations performed on 15 patients have demonstrated high effectiveness the new developed means of preoperative planning.