Characteristics of traumatic amputations of fingers in children

• Published in: Revista medicală Română 2015-12, Vol.62 (4), p.398-402
• Main Authors: Matlac, Ileana-Carmen, Enescu, Dan Mircea
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1220-5478; 2069-606X
• DOI: 10.37897/RMJ.2015.4.14

Objective. The analysis of the traumatic amputation of fingers of hospital admitted children in order to identify certain characteristics to form the basis for optimizing the prevention and cure algorithms. Materials and methods. The data was extracted from the surgical protocols of the children admitted to the Clinic of Plastic Surgery and Burns of “Grigore Alexandrescu” Clinical Emergency Children’s Hospital, between 2005 and 2013, with traumatic amputations of the fingers. Information was gathered related to the age and sex of the patients, the circumstances of occurrence of the trauma, the manner of occurrence, the amputation level, the type of surgical procedure and the number of surgical interventions. Results. A total of 42 children with traumatic amputations of the fingers have undergone surgery, the coverage of the stump being employed in 81% of cases and the replantation of the amputated segment in only 19% of instances. Two thirds of the pacients were boys. The fingers were affected in 95% of the cases presented to the clinic with this type of trauma. Conclusions. The data obtained has been in accordance with other studies that had indicated the rising incidence of traumatic finger amputations among boys, during household activities that involve manipulating tools having a high potential of injury when use by children. The technical possibilities of replantation are both available and effective, but the cases eligible for this type of treatment are few, hence the focus should still be set on prevention.