Functional Outcomes after Post-Traumatic Chase Amputation: A Case Report

Abstract

Every year thousands of people are victims of hand trauma, with serious injuries for half of them. Hand injuries occur twice as often in accidents in everyday life than in accidents at work. They are the cause of several amputations (hand or fingers). The nature of the trauma does not only affect the survival rate, but also the functional outcome. Sometimes it is better to have an amputated finger than a non-functional and sometimes even embarrassing, painful and insensitive leftover finger. Traumatic digit amputation generates functional, aesthetic and psychological disabilities. Such post-traumatic consequences call for a rigorous therapeutic approach, aiming at an early secondary surgical procedure which is ideally to be performed before the patients psychologically recover from their initial trauma. Through this technical point, we describe a technique for additional amputation of the index finger by transforming the middle finger into an index finger while maintaining a free and functional first commissure.