The chance of successful engraftment was low – only 40%, because the fingers were cut off at the level of the fold. However, the surgeons of the First Medical Association of Lviv managed to do it.
21-year-old Volodymyr works as a loader in his hometown of Yavoriv, Lviv region. Somehow, due to an injury at work, he had already lost his ring finger. Then medics could not save the phalanx. Another incident happened when the boy was unloading a car with huge beams. A moment – and a log weighing 200 kg falls and presses a hand in a glove.
Local doctors, when they saw the severed index and middle fingers of Volodymyr, immediately sent him to Lviv, because they know that the St. Panteleimon Hospital successfully performs grafting operations. Here, the boy was immediately X-rayed and finger replantation was started. The operation lasted 5 hours.
“Replantation is the microsurgical reattachment of a severed limb or its part. The difficulty of conducting such an operation in Volodymyr’s case is that his fingers were amputated at the level of the fold. And the further the phalanx is from the hand, the more small blood vessels, as thick as a human hair, and the more difficult it is to engraft. This is successful in less than half of such cases,” the First TMO explains.
Three months have passed since Volodymyr’s operation. The grafted fingers are fully functional. He has another tendon reconstruction surgery ahead of him. It is needed to improve the flexion and extension functions of the hand.
Important information for patients! In case of traumatic loss of fingers, the time of providing medical assistance is of great importance. Cut or torn phalanges should be placed in a cold container as soon as possible. But so that there is no direct contact with the ice. And deliver to the hospital where reconstructive interventions are performed no later than 12 hours after the amputation!