Abstract
The patients in whom I performed digit replantation during a 2-year period were divided into two groups. Postoperative systemic heparin was administered to Group A ( 17 patients with 19 replanted digits ; between May 2013 and April 2014 ), but not to Group B ( 19 patients with 22 replanted digits ; between May 2014 and April 2015 ). There were no other differences between the treatments employed in the two groups, and no significant intergroup differences in factors that were considered to have the potential to influence the study results were found. No significant differences in the frequency of postoperative arterial thrombosis ( Group A, 1 digit ; Group B, 2 digits ; p=1 ), postoperative venous thrombosis ( Group A, 1 digit ; Group B, 2 digits ; p=1), or postoperative vessel spasm ( Group A, 1 digit ; Group B, 1 digit ; p=1 ) were detected. However, postoperative bleeding was significantly more common in Group A ( 7 cases ) than in Group B ( 0 cases ) ( p=0.00233 ). These results suggest that the postoperative use of heparin has no effect on the incidence of microvascular thrombosis after digit replantation.
