22-year-old man underwent a complex surgery of two amputated fingers
The right preservation method of amputated part helped the doctors to replant the fingertips
Chennai, January 21st, 2020: A 22-year-old man went through a challenging and complicated surgery of replanting of two amputated fingers which was successfully performed by the team of proficient surgeons at Gleneagles Global Health City. Two amputated fingers were reattached by microvascular surgery, which lasted for 10 hours. The right preservation method of the amputated part helped the doctors to replant the fingertips, done under a microscope using suture material which is thinner than hair.
Dr Selva SeethaRaman, Head of the Department, Institute of Plastic Aesthetic and Reconstructive surgery, Gleneagles Global Health City says “Finger amputations can be reattached successfully irrespective of the level of cut. However it is ideal that the amputated part is brought to the hospital within six hours from the accident. But for distal finger amputation few more hours of delay is not a problem. It is also important to properly preserve the amputated part before reaching the hospital.”
A 22-year-old man from Chennai injured his right hand while operating a cutting machine in his company. The 2nd and 3rd fingers of his right hand got amputated while doing his work. Since, there was significant blood loss and the patient was anxious, doctors reassured and stabilized him in the emergency room before shifting to the operation theatre. It was a distal amputation of the fingertip just behind the nail complex. After confirming that the tissues and blood vessels were in good condition, doctors decided to proceed with reattaching the cut parts to the respective fingertips.
Replantation is the surgical procedure of re- attaching a cut (amputated) part of the body and this is commonly done for fingers and hands. The surgery involves joining the bone, tendons (structures that move the fingers), blood vessels (arteries and veins) and nerves. Especially, in this case, because the cut was very close to the fingertip, the size of the blood vessels was very small – (less than 0.8mm) in diameter and joining the blood vessels was technically the most challenging part of the entire procedure added Dr Selva SeethaRaman.
The patient was discharged after 7 days and followed up in the outpatient department until the wound healed. The patient started on mobilization and physiotherapy exercises progressively. Near normal range of movements achieved post-surgery
