Revascularization and Replantation of the Hand

Abstract

During the period from March 1991 to December 1994, microsurgical revascularization and replantation techniques were performed on nine patients with subtotal and total hand amputation in Erciyes University School of Medicine, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Travmatology. Three of four replantations (75%), and four of five revascularizations (80%), were successful. The length of follow up period was 16 to 59 months with an average of 30.2 months. All the patients were male and their ages ranged from 14 to 30. Left hand in three cases and right hand in six cases were injured. All patients were operated under general anaesthesia, with using pneumatic tourniquet. The mean operating time was 6.5 hours. In seven patients (77.7%) circulation was reestablished postoperatively. Only in one case, tissue defect at dorsum of the hand was covered with an inguinal flap. Functional recovery was evaluated using Chen and Yu criterias. Two patients achieved excellent, three patients achieved good and fair, and two patients achieved poor results.