Tawam Hospital, part of the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA), performed a complicated emergency hand replantation operation on a patient who lost his hand in an industrial accident that lasted nine hours.
Using a microsurgery approach, the plastic and reconstructive surgical team was able to reestablish blood circulation in the severed arm within two hours, and the patient was able to move his fingers within a week after the surgery.
Replantation operations involve the surgical reattachment of a bodily part (such as the hand, fingers, or toes), with a replanted component’s average survival rate of 80%.
The effectiveness of the replantation procedure is determined by various factors, the most important of which is the type of injury. Sharp injuries often result in the best overall outcomes, but crush or avulsion amputations (injuries in which a bodily structure is pulled off by trauma) yield generally poor outcomes. Furthermore, age, location of injury, and joint vs. non-joint injuries are all factors that influence recovery.
Elaborating further on the surgery, Dr. Ammar Al Dhamin, Plastic, Reconstructive and Microsurgery Consultant, Tawam Hospital, at SEHA, said, “Replantation surgeries can be complex and highly technical. The patient presented to us with a hand severed from his wrist, an industrial injury. Elapsed time is highly crucial; as one of the most important factors to a successful replantation is less than 6 hours in the structures contain muscles. In this case, we restored blood circulation within two hours, and the patient could start moving his fingers within a week. We expect he will need extensive physiotherapy in the future, but his recovery so far has been fantastic.”
The surgery team who performed the procedure also includes local Emiratis surgeons, Dr. Latifa Abdulla Al Dhaheri, Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Hamad Ahmed Aldhaheri, Medical Resident and Dr. Mohammed Nadir Sekkal, Specialist Physician, from the orthopedic team.
