Delayed and suspended replantation for complete amputation of digits and hands.

Purpose: To analyze the clinical outcome for delayed or suspended replantation of complete amputations of digits or hands, or both.

Methods: We analyzed 20 cases involving 28 digital and 4 hand amputations that underwent delayed or suspended replantation. In 15 cases of single-digit amputation, patients underwent delayed replantation the morning following amputation. With amputation of multiple digits, bilateral digits, or the hand, the important digits or dominant hand underwent immediate replantation, and we suspended the surgeries for the residual digits or non-dominant hand, or both, until the next morning. We then evaluated the mean warm and cold ischemic time for the operations, graft survival rates, and clinical outcomes. The mean follow-up period was 26 months. We evaluated the clinical results using the criteria of Chen.

Results: The mean warm and cold ischemic times in 15 cases of delayed replantation were 2 hours 4 minutes and 7 hours 21 minutes, respectively. In 8 cases of suspended replantation, the mean warm and cold ischemic times in the first operation were 5 hours 54 minutes and 2 hours 36 minutes, respectively. In the second operation, the cold ischemic time averaged 15 hours 48 minutes. In this series, 24 of 28 digits and all 4 hands survived. Total survival incidence in both delayed and suspended replantation was 88%, not statistically different from the overall survival incidence in 711 cases of immediate replantation during the same period (84%). In delayed replantation, we observed an excellent result with 6 digits and a good result with another 6 digits. In suspended cases, we observed a good result with one multiple-digit and one hand procedure and we obtained a fair result in 3 multiple-digit and 2 hand replantation procedures.

Conclusions: Delayed and suspended replantations demonstrate results comparable to immediate replantation regarding graft survival and clinical outcome.

Type Of Study/level Of Evidence: Therapeutic IV.