Cuttack: Adding another feather to their caps, doctors at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Odisha’s Cuttack successfully replanted the chopped off hand of a 22-year-old youth, Prakash Das, from Balasore district.
The youth was rushed to SCB Medical College and Hospital by his family members after a few miscreants attacked and chopped off his left hand while he was returning from tuition. He reached the hospital four hours after the attack. A team of doctors, comprising plastic surgeons, orthopaedics and anaesthesiologists, conducted the replantation in a surgery that lasted eight hours.
Speaking to the media on Friday, head of Plastic Surgery Department Dr Bibhuti Bhushan Naik said that two such operations have been conducted at hospital in the last 3 months following availability of the facility. “Prakash came to our department with his amputated hand. We immediately placed his amputated arm in a sealed plastic bag and conducted several tests. Surgeons and doctors from other departments were also consulted and together we undertook the operation to replant his arm on Thursday. He is recovering and we are sure that he will be able to lead a normal life,” he said.
Replantation surgery is very challenging due to various factors like, excess blood loss, time taken to reach the hospital, condition and infection of the wound and the severed limb, he added.
“Surgery in the conventional method would have restored only his finger movements, but here, we have tried that the youth retains his wrist movement too by grafting veins from other parts of the body,” a doctor said.
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