All You Need To Know About Preserving An Amputated Body Organ For Replantation

Replantation is a surgical operation, where the amputated body parts are reattached to the body. To perform replantation, surgeons are required to repair the injured bony structures as well as tendons, blood vessels, nerves and skin. Surgeons can also be required to repair the additional soft tissue coverage. Dr Mahesh Mangal, Chairman, Department of Plastic & Cosmetic Surgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has shed more light on this topic in a conversation with News 18.

How to preserve the body parts:

Dr Mahesh has shared an extremely important piece of advice, which can be very useful for patients whose body parts are amputated due to any reason. According to the doctor, patients or their family members should try to search for the amputated body part and wash it safely with water. After this, that body part should be kept safely in a polythene bag. It should be followed with this polythene bag enclosed under another bag filled with ice cubes. While doing this, it should be kept in mind that these ice cubes should not be in direct contact with the amputated body part. Try to reach the nearby hospital as quickly as possible so that doctors can work on the process of replantation.

Time duration of conserving the body parts

Toes and Fingers– Toes and Fingers can be reattached to the human body if they are successfully preserved for 16-18 hours.

Hands– Hands can be reattached to the body within 8-10 hours.

Male private part– Male private part can be conserved and again attached to the human body within a time frame of 10-12 hours.

Elbow– Amputated elbows can be reattached to the body within 8 hours.

Arm– Arms can be re-joined to the human body within 6 hours.

Ears– Ears can be conserved and reattached to the human body within 10-12 hours.

Woman’s skull – The skull of a woman can also be reattached within 10-12 hours.