Eight months ago a 30 year old lady was assaulted by some unknown people at a village near Pondicherry. Her left hand was amputated with a sharp knife when she tried to defend herself.

She was taken to the Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences in Kalapet, Pondicherry with severed hand. There she was immediately attended to by doctors from the department of Microvascular Surgery. After making sure she was stable, she was taken into the operation theatre.

In a five hour long surgery, the doctors from the departments of Plastic, Reconstructive and Microvascular Surgery, with support from doctors of the department of Anaesthesia, replanted the amputated hand repairing severed bone, tendons, nerves, veins and arteries under a microscope.

She recovered well from the surgery and underwent an intensive regimen of physiotherapy in the Physical & Medical Rehabilitation department in the hospital.

The team consisted of Dr.Sharad Ramdas, Dr. Elvino Barreto and Dr.Arunkumar of the Department of Plastic and Microvascular Surgery, Dr.Sagiev Koshy George from the department of Anaesthesia and Dr. Revathy Maharajan from the PMR department.

Now after eight months the young lady has recovered well and has near normal use of the replanted hand. She has been able to do her daily housework with no trouble.

It is to be reemphasized that amputated body parts are to be handled carefully. They are to be wrapped in cloth or gauze and put in a plastic bag. At no time should any antiseptic or chemical be used to clean the amputated part. The bag is then put in a container full of ice. The amputated part should not come directly in contact with the ice. The patient should be rushed to the nearest Microvascular center along with the amputated body part. The Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences is one of the centers having this facility with state of the art microscope, equipment and a well trained team of three doctors.

As reported earlier in October 2005 the right upper limb of a road traffic accident victim had been replanted in the Pondicherry Instuite of Medical Sciences by the same team. Read More...

A number of finger and genital replantations have also been carried out in this institute.