Comments on: A hand of one’s own

By: Phillipa Crawford

Phillipa Crawford — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 14:34:01 +0000

Those of us who enjoy good health tend to take it for granted. We shouldn’t.

By: Ed Bonderenka

Ed Bonderenka — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 14:10:14 +0000

Well, of course I am reminded of this:
Mad Love with Peter Lorre
or
Hands of a Stranger.
But it’s wonderful what doctor can dor (Thanks Dr MikeK).
My brother accidentally cut off fingers on a table saw and they were reattached and he has full use.
Oddly, as I typed this, and looked back at some of the words, I wondered what my fingers thought they were doing…(seriously).
Thank God I proofed it.

By: jon baker

jon baker — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 05:19:57 +0000

I have a friend who cut his arm off below the elbow with a saw. They sewed it back on and he has a lot of control over it, but not any where near 100%.

By: Cicero

Cicero — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 04:42:23 +0000

As a non-surgeon, my take on hand transplants is that it must necessarily be technically quite complex. Gotta tie tendons to tendons; arteries to arteries, and veins to veins, neither of large diameter; and anastomose the median, ulnar and radial nerve supply.
On top of that is the need for chronic immunosuppression and its consequences. For a new heart, OK, but for a hand?
My hat is off to Mike K, but I wouldn’t have it done to me as a patient. Gone is gone!

By: neo

neo — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:56:02 +0000

Mike K:

It must take a ton of skill to do that. I know it took a lot of skill just to do my nerve surgery, and it was a lot simpler than any sort of reattachment.

By: Mike K

Mike K — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 22:09:25 +0000

I once reattached a forearm that was cut off by a Skilsaw. He got fair function back but it took a year. Then we had a guy who cut his hand off with a tablesaw. He was drunk and the cops found him walking down the street, with his bleeding stump. They went back to his shop and found the hand in the saw dust, I can’t remember if anybody tried to reattach it.

I did try to reattach a foot. A teenaged kid was trying to put up a metal basketball backboard, He dropped it and it cut his foot off at what we would normally call a “transmetatarsal amp.” The vessels were tiny and it didn’t work.

Years later, I was testifying in a criminal case and the judge was that boy’s father. He was very friendly and appreciative for what we had tried to do.

I don’t think many tried to reattach legs as the nerves are very long and the results were not that good. I have no experience trying to transplant hands or arms.

It seems pretty experimental

There are 89 cases worldwide. Autotransplant is tough enough.