A team of doctors at the Government Hospital (GH) in rural Thuvarankurichi has successfully performed a finger replantation surgery on a 14-year-old girl.
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Recently, Saranya of Ellakattupatti was brought to the GH late in the night by her parents with traumatic total amputation of her right little finger. They carried the distal amputated finger fragment covered in a separate hand towel. Her finger was severed when she was cutting sugarcane.
On information, the orthopaedic and trauma surgeon John Viswanath rushed to the GH and examined the patient. Considering the urgency of conducting a finger replantation procedure, he set up an emergency operation theatre with the help of staff members and workers. With the help of Sindhu, an anaesthetist, Dr. Viswanath performed the surgery on Saranya. The surgery that began at 12.40 am lasted nearly two hours. The finger was fixed with an intramedullary needle and the tendons soft tissue was repaired and the finger was successfully replanted.
After 10 days of hospitalisation, the doctors discharged the patient from the GH on Sunday.
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Dr. Viswanath said that the replanted finger was functioning well, and that the bone was also fixed. The girl had recovered well.
“Finger replantation is highly effective if the patient is brought to the hospital as quickly as possible. We did not want to waste time in referring her to other hospitals at odd hours. Hence, we performed the surgery with the available resources at Thurvarankurichi GH,” said Dr. Viswanath.