Replantations of Amputated Limbs and Digits: An analysis of 200 replantations

Yoo, Myung Chul; Kim, Bong Kun; Chung, Duke Whan; Han, Jung Soo; Bhyun, Sang Yoon

Abstract

We studied two hundread cases of replantations-61 cases of major limb replantation and 139 cases of finger replantation. 53 of 179 patients had multiple amputation. The most common cause of amputation was cutting-machine injury and the next one was belt and roller injury. The patients were followed than 6 months, ranging 6 months to 5 years and 10 months, averaging 36 months. The success rate of replantation is 86.9%(53/61) in the amputated limbs and 80.6%(112/139) in the amputated digits. Main causes of failure were tissue crushing, vessel thrombosis, long ischemic time, and amputation wound infection. Common complications were infection (25 cases), delayed union(7 cases), nonunion(2 cases), bleeding tendency and hematoma formation due to systemic heparinization(5 cases). We used Seddon's classification to assess the recovery of the nerve function of the replanted limbs and digits. 84.6 % of success cases of limb replantation presented the excellent result in the motor fuction recovery and 89.1% also presented the excellent sensory recovery. 89.8% of the success cases of the digit replantation showed the excellent result in the sensory recovery. The factors influencing the functional recovery of the replantation surgery were mechanism of injury, ischemic time, surgical technique, numbers of anastomosed vessels, ratio between anastomosed artery and vein, and wound infection. This analysis demonstrated that strict selection of the indication or the replantation is the first step in the limb and digit replantation surgery.