Hand Trauma Week--Surgical Cases

Sorry to the nonmedical folk reading this, there's a little bit of blood--no guts though. So this week has been hand trauma week. One case was a machete wound to the wrist. The other was a close range shotgun wound to the hand. I'm still working to try to save the index finger and part of the thumb for the patient who accidentally shot his hand. I don't think he'll have any sensation left in his index finger, but he really wants to keep it. I'm going to have to do a tendon graft to reconnect the tendons in that finger. The patient with the machete wound severed both arteries, both nerves and all the tendons on the palm side of his wrist. The photo shows my repair of the arteries. Tomorrow he'll be back in the operating room for repair of the nerves and then tendons.