PGI docs reattach severed fingers of boy

LUCKNOW : Doctors of the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) re-attached two fingers of a nineyear-old boy to his hand, which he lost in an accident, recently. The child is doing well and is recovering after a long surgery.

Shlok Yadav, 9, a resident of Murjam Nagar, on Sultanpur Road, lost his fingers while playing near an automated saw installed in his house. Unknowingly, he put his hand near the blade, resulting in two fingers of his right hand getting severed completely. The accident happened at 9.30 am on Tuesday, and the child was rushed to SGPGI trauma centre.

The surgery began at 2 pm, lasting seven hours at the end of which both fingers were reattached to the stumps in the hand. Dr Rajeev Agarwal, head, plastic surgery, SGPGI said, “Reattachment is a surgery where the cut finger, hand or any part of the body is surgically re-attached to its place by modern plastic surgery. The technical term for reattachment is replantation.

“In replantation, the time elapsed from the injury to treatment is important. The ideal time to perform reattachment surgery is within six hours of injury. The severed part of the body does not have blood supply, oxygen, or nutrients to support the tissue. Therefore, progressive tissue injury occurs over time.” Dr Agarwal said that there are options to help increase replantation chances. How should the cut part be preserved and transported to the hospital? “It is very important to correctly preserve the cut part. It should be rinsed quickly with water or saline. The part should then be wrapped in wet gauze and put in a sealed plastic bag. This bag should be placed in ice water/ice. This is important to slow the process of degeneration,” he said.