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Topics: News, World News
Emma Marsden
In a medical marvel that captured global attention, doctors in Changsha, China successfully performed a groundbreaking surgery where a man's hand was temporarily grafted to his ankle.
The procedure was necessitated after a tragic accident severed the man's hand and left it at risk of irreparable damage.
The patient, 27-year-old Xiao Wei, was rushed to hospital in the Hunan Province of China after an industrial accident involving heavy machinery resulted in the severing of his right hand.
Doctors faced a daunting challenge as the hand had been detached for several hours, significantly reducing the chances of a successful reattachment directly to the arm.
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Due to the condition of the severed hand, the decision was made by doctors to temporarily graft it to Xiao Wei's ankle. This approach was aimed at preserving the hand and its tissues while allowing time for Xiao Wei to stabilize and for further surgical planning.
However, doctors were hopeful that he would regain full function of his hand.
"His injury was severe. Besides ripping injuries, his arm was also flattened. We had to clear and treat his injuries before taking on the hand reattachment surgery,” doctors stated, as reported by BBC.
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The procedure, which lasted several hours, involved connecting the hand's arteries, veins, and tendons to those in Xiao Wei's ankle. This intricate surgery was critical in maintaining the hand's viability for future reattachment to its original site on Xiao Wei's arm.
Medical experts emphasized that while such surgeries are rare and technically complex, they are crucial in cases where immediate reattachment is not feasible.
The temporary grafting allows the injured tissues to remain alive and functional, thus increasing the chances of a successful long-term recovery.
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Mr Cairian Healy of the Royal College of Surgeons in England told the BBC that although procedures such as these were rare, they were not impossible.
"The Chinese are pretty experienced in microsurgery," he said.
"And the concept of saving a severed part of the body by attaching it to another part of the body to give it a blood supply is well recognized."
The surgeon confirmed it is a complex procedure, saying: "The patient might not be fit enough for the surgery. It can take a skilled surgeon between eight and 15 hours to reattach a hand."
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Xiao Wei remained under close observation in hospital, where doctors monitored the progress of both his hand and his overall condition. The next steps in his treatment were to involve carefully planning the reattachment of the hand to his arm, approximately a month after the initial surgery.