Doctors save man's severed hand by grafting it on to his leg for a month
Beijing
Chinese surgeons saved a hand severed in an industrial accident by grafting it on to the man’s ankle for a month before attaching it back to his arm.
The surgery was carried on Zhou, a factory worker, at a local hospital in Hunan province in China.
Zhou had his left hand chopped off in a work accident involving a spinning blade machine and was rushed to hospital where Dr Tang Juyu, head of microsurgery at the hospital, operated to give him the chance to “revive” his lost hand.
The surgical team were unable to reattach the hand to the patient’s arm as the severed nerves and tendons needed had to heal.
Dr Juyu reportedly said that under normal temperature, a severed finger needs to resume blood supply within 10 hours but it is even faster for a separated limb.
“If a limb is short of blood for too long, its tissues die and it will be unsalvageable.”
The sense in Zhou’s finger has returned but he will need months of rehabilitation for it to recover.
This is not the first time Chinese surgeons have attempted this surgery, another factory worker’s hand was saved in the same manner in 2013 at a hospital in Hunan Province.
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