In the current era,where perforator flaps are mainstay of reconstruction,hand held Doppler is very useful.Pre–operative localisation of perforators helps greatly in designing and elevating flaps.While there are many other more accurate and sophisticated modalities for perforator localisation,the current literature is lacking with the accuracy of hand held Doppler in localising perforators pre–operatively.Aims and objectives: to establish the accuracy of hand held Doppler in localising perforators.Material and methods : 21 patients of leg defects undergoing perforator flap reconstruction were evaluated prospectively in the department of plastic surgery,nalanda medical college and hospital,patna,india during January 2017 to july 2018.Hand held Doppler with 8MHz probe was used to localise perforators in the vicinity of defect to assist in flap elevation which was compared during operative exploration.Results : out of 56 perforators marked pre–operatively,45 were localised intra–operatively.Sensitivity was found to be 93.33% with positive predictive value of 87.5% and lack of specificity.Conclusion :hand held Doppler device is a very useful tool in planning perforator based flap surgery despite its few limitations.