Doctors sow man’s hand into his stomach to save it
Doctors have sown a man’s hand into a pocket in his stomach to help it grow back and recover after an acceident.
87 year old, Frank Reyes was home alone and changing a tire when the jack slipped, instantly pinning his hand against the bumper. It was a hot afternoon that day and before anyone couuld come to Frank’s aid, the hot metal started ‘cooking his hand’ burning through his glove, skin, tendons and tissue. Doctors initially tried a conservative approach, cleaning and bandaging the wound, but infection set in and most of his index finger had to be amputated and the hand grew worse. Doctor’s told Frank’s grand daughter Casey, “His skin was almost completely dead…It looks like a mummy’s skin”
When he was brought to Houston Methodist Hospital, doctors told his grand daughter they were going to try a line of treatment that sounded like something out of a science fiction movie – sow his hand into his stomach ‘like a pocket’ to save it! He found it odd at first but agreed and spent three weeks with his left hand surgically tucked under a pocket of tissue in his belly. This gave the hand time to heal and form new blood supply.
Last Thursday, doctors cut his hand free of its temporary home and shaped some of the abdominal tissue and skin to cover it. “It’s a funny feeling,” he said in an interview while his hand was still attached to his belly. “Anything to get me well.” Surgeries like this — temporarily attaching one body part to another, or tucking it under skin — are by no means new, but they are uncommon. Earlier this year, a similar surgery was carried out in China when a man’s arm was attached to his leg to restore damaged nerves and blood flow.
They are mostly used on the battlefield, in trauma situations, and increasingly in research as a way to incubate lab-grown body parts from scaffold-like materials. Dr. Anthony Echo a plastic surgeon at the hospital who conducted the surgery on Frank saw an opportunity to apply this. Explaining the procedure Dr. Echo stated that a skin graft or flap of tissue from another part of Reyes’ body would not work. The damage was down to the bone, and without a good blood supply, a graft or flap would die. On reasons for using the belly as a ‘growth medium’ to restore the hand he said, “The abdominal skin actually sticks to the hand and new blood vessels form to connect them. Without this its likely he would have lost all his fingers.”
Dr. Vijay Gorantla, a plastic surgeon and hand transplant expert said the operation is not novel, but many doctors today don’t realize it is an option in situations like this. “The credit has to go to the surgeons for having chosen this” to help the patient, he said. “It gives you phenomenal results, especially in this type of injury, with minimal complications.” As for Reyes, he’s postive and says “As soon as I’m well enough to drive I want to take a little trip. The main thing I want to do is raise cattle and ride horses. I’m an outdoors person” who doesn’t like being cooped up.”
Original Article – The Star News (World)
