Table of contents:
- What is the broken hand grafting procedure like?
- The recovery process after replanting a broken hand
- The rehabilitation process after replanting a severed hand
Disconnection of a limb is considered a serious injury that can drastically change your ability to perform daily activities. Because of this, surgeons usually take steps as early as possible to reconnect the severed body part. However, what if the part of the body that had broken off was the hand? Can the doctor perform a broken hand grafting procedure to return to normal function?
What is the broken hand grafting procedure like?
The procedure for grafting a severed body part is generally referred to as replantation. This procedure can be performed on a finger, hand, or arm that has been severed as a result of an accident or serious injury. The goal is none other than so that the patient can regain the function of the body part that was previously broken as optimally as possible.
Replantation of broken hands is carried out in the following three stages.
- Hands are cleaned of damaged tissue with care.
- The ends of the bones of both halves of the hand are shortened and then joined by pins, wire, or a special combination of plates and screws. These tools will help hold your hands in place during the tissue recovery process.
- Muscles, tendons, blood vessels, and nerves are repaired so that they can be reconnected. The doctor can also make tissue grafts from the bone, skin, and other tissues involved when needed.
The recovery process after replanting a broken hand
The postoperative recovery process will be quite time consuming and the patient must undergo it carefully. This process can vary from person to person and depends on a number of factors such as:
- Age: Younger patients had a greater chance of regrowing nerve tissue, feeling sensation in the hand, and moving the represented hand normally as before.
- Network damage level: Hands that are severed in an accident usually have more severe tissue damage, making it more difficult to recover when compared to amputations.
- Position of injury: The further away the injury is from the base of the arm, the more likely it is that the function of the severed hand will return.
- Injury to joints: The likelihood of a full recovery is greater in patients who do not have joint injuries.
In order to support the recovery process, patients with broken hands must also avoid things that can interfere with blood circulation. You should stay away from smoking as this can reduce blood flow to the operated area. Not only that, you also need to keep your hands higher than your heart to increase blood flow to that area.
The rehabilitation process after replanting a severed hand
The rehabilitation process is an important part of getting your hands back to normal. First, your hand will be fitted with a kind of skeleton around the tissue that was injured. This skeleton will limit the movement of the hands, but at the same time also help train the movement of the hand muscles while still reducing the possibility of developing scar tissue.
Rehabilitation can indeed help you restore the function of a severed hand, but it should be understood that the function of the nerve tissue in your hand will not return up to one hundred percent. In addition, the nerve tissue that connects your hand to the central nervous system also takes a while to heal. So you may need to wait several months before you can make progress, including feeling something with your fingertips.
Replantation is a procedure that should not be done haphazardly. Not infrequently, doctors actually recommend an amputation procedure if the damage to the tissue is considered too severe. This advice is usually given on the grounds that reconnecting a severed hand will cause more problems than benefits.
