mrmoshe Posted July 11, 2007 Posted July 11, 2007 Leeches used in surgery to save fisherman's fingers A New Zealand sailor who lost four fingers in an accident aboard a fishing boat has had three fingers reattached in different order to save his hand function. The man, 24, lost his fingers on his right hand when a hatch fell on it aboard a fishing trawler on Sunday night. The fingers were kept on ice while the trawler made its way to Nelson and the Wellington-based Westpac rescue helicopter transferred the man to Hutt Hospital. Plastic surgeons Chris Adams and Charles Davis spent more than nine hours of complicated surgery reattaching three of the fingers on Monday. The little finger was too badly "pulverised" to be reattached, The Dominion Post reported. The strongest fingers were put on closest to the man's thumb, which was intact, Davis said. The middle finger had been put where the man's index finger had previously been, his ring finger in the middle finger's position, and his index finger where the ring finger had been. Davis said it was not yet known if the new ring finger would survive, but the other two fingers "looked excellent". A leech had been put on the end of the ring finger to improve blood flow. "There's a good artery bringing blood in. The leech is helping to drain blood out." By Wednesday morning about 12 leeches had been used and more flown up from Christchurch. Although not often used, leeches were sometimes "excellent" for helping until the body was able to repair itself. Davis said the fingers had been crushed and torn in the accident, so that made reattaching them difficult. The man's fingers had the tendons that move the fingers torn out of his forearm and there was no way to reattach those tendons to the muscle. His ability to move his fingers would be limited and he might benefit from reconstructive surgery in the future, Davis said. The fisherman was reported to be in good spirits.
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