Can you reattach severed arm

For replant patients Physical therapy and temporary bracing are important to the recovery process. From the beginning, braces are used to protect the newly repaired tendons but allow the patient to move the replanted part. Therapy with limited motion helps keep joints from getting stiff, helps keep muscles mobile, and helps keep scar tissue to a minimum.

Even after you have recovered, you may find that you cannot do everything you wish to do. Tailor-made devices may help many patients perform special activities or hobbies. Talk to your physician or therapist to find out more about such devices. Many replant patients are able to return to the jobs they held before the injury. When this is not possible, patients can seek assistance in selecting a new type of work.

For amputees If you have completed an amputation, therapy and rehabilitation also play a large part in recovery. For the missing part, a prosthesis may be worn a device that substitutes for a missing part of the body. Emotional recovery Replantation or amputation can affect your emotional life as well as your body. When your bandages are removed and you see the replanted or amputated part for the first time, you may feel shock, grief, anger, disbelief or disappointment because the body part does not look like it did before.

These feelings are common. Talking about these feelings with your doctor often helps you come to terms with the outcome. Your doctor may also ask a counselor to assist with this process. This content is written, edited and updated by hand surgeon members of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand.

Find a hand surgeon near you. Request a Consultation. Refer a Patient. Most patients need limb replantation within hours of experiencing traumatic injuries. Depending on the type of injury you have, surgical specialists can replant some severed limbs. Replantation is more common for upper extremities like arms, hands, and fingers.

It is less common for lower extremities. While replantation is usually more successful with sharp injures, some types of crush injuries do respond successfully. It's difficult to tell the whole story verbally, and I usually leave something out. So my wife, Carol, and I made this video. Seeman is approaching the 30th anniversary of the accident, which occurred April 30, At the time, he was working in the family tow truck business when he was called to the scene of an overturned semi truck.

His arm got caught in a mechanism that winds and unwinds the tow truck cable. Nearly severed, his arm was left hanging by the skin. They sewed nerves, blood vessels, muscles and tendons together and used plates and screws to reconnect his broken humerus upper arm bone.

They took bone grafts from his hips and skin grafts from his leg, and used a vein from his leg to replace a damaged artery in his arm. Many limb reattachments ultimately fail. The limb can die due to poor circulation, retain little or no movement or become so painful due to nerve damage that it must be amputated. But Seeman experienced none of those problems.