A 20-year-old girl, who sustained serious crush injury involving her right arm in a road accident, has regained her hand mobility following multiple surgical procedures.
A team of surgeons from Parvathy Hospital in Chennai found that her right upper limb sustained crush injury and radial nerve injury. A comminuted compound fracture of right proximal humerus with wrist drop was diagnosed.
A temporary stabilisation of fracture and a split skin grafting procedure was performed to restore dynamic function of the arm. .
Mithun, senior orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital, said she had loss of movement as well as sensation in the upper limb. Initially, temporary stabilisation of fracture was done with external fixator, and plastic surgeons performed series of wound debridement procedures for removal of necrotic tissue and promote wound healing.
Later, split skin grafting procedure was performed to cover deep structures, restore dynamic function of the arm and to prevent joint contractures.
After a month of observation, an Open Reduction and Internal Fixation and bone grafting was performed to reconstruct the broken bones to bring them back to normal position, he added.
Dharmarajan, director-Orthopaedics, said the crushed arm was saved, the comminuted fractures healed well with reasonable functions in her upper limb. With these procedures, upper limb amputation was avoided, he said in the release.
