Replantations of 133 completely amputated fingers in 87 patients performed from June, 1972 to December, 1980 were studied. Ninety three digits survived (70%) and forty failed (30%). Survival correlated most closely to the mechanism of injury and there was a definite relationship between the number of arteries repaired and survival rate. The group of two arteries repaired had a greater potential for survival (82.6%), compaired with one artery repaired (67.3%).
We tried to evaluate the cause of failures in the forty replantations that were unsuccessful and found that the majority of failures were secondaly to vascular thrombosis (72.5%). Other causes of failure were venous insufficiency (20%) and failure to vascularize (7.5%). The majority of thromboses were on the arterial side. The possibility of such factors causing loss of the digit is reduced by increasing the number of vessels repaired. In most digits, threfore, two arteries and at least two or three veins should be repaired routinly.
