This surgery can give you back your hand

bangalore: it's the hand that feeds the mouth. for those who've lost their hands in entirety or a few fingers in horrifying accidents, their true worth descends like a bad dream every day. however, extremely specialised treatment like microvascular surgery can come to the aid on many occasions. the tragedy is that there is very little awareness and even fewer centres which offer such facilities."microvascular surgery is one of the most advanced forms of surgery which needs precision instruments and absolute fool-proof techniques to master. though recently quite a few centres have started offering such facilities, awareness about the speciality is woefully short even among sections of the medical community, leave alone the layman," says dr priyadarshan, consultant plastic and microsurgeon at the hospital for orthopaedics, sports medicine, arthritis and accident-trauma (hosmat). he says, "one of the major uses of microvascular surgeries is in reimplantation of hands and fingers. the hand, being an important organ of function, especially in this age of mechanisation, needs to be saved under all circumstances." hosmat, says its director, dr thomas chandy, has in the last year carried out 24 cases of reimplantation. "almost 80 per cent of these cases are industrial accidents. a sizeable number of cases are also children. car doors and lifts in apartments have led to a large number of amputations," he says. explains dr priyadarshan, "during a microvascular surgery, the microvascular surgeon using an operating microscope attempts to join the cut ends of small blood vessels such as arteries, veins and capillaries and the cut ends of the nerves. the surgeon also gives priority to reconstructing tendons and joints." according to dr chandy, patients need to be brought to the hospital within the first six hours of the injury for best results. "as soon as the amputation occurs, the amputated part should be kept in a clean and dry polythene bag. one should not let water or any other fluid touch the cut finger and this bag should be kept in a container of ice and shifted to the centre with microvascular surgery facility as early as possible," he advises. the injured hand should be bandaged and the bleeding area should be given compression only -- not to ligate the bleeding vessels. after healing, all cases need physiotherapy to get back 100 per cent functional ability. (more details can be had on 5593796/ 5593797/ 5543746/ 5543796)