The surgeons at the Yashoda hospital, Secunderabad, performed a rare thumb reconstruction surgery in November 2011 by using the patient’s own toe, a technique that can be used, they say, to correct almost any thumb defect.
The right thumb of the patient, Shyam Sundar, 26, a carpenter, was crushed accidentally in September last year when he was working in Dubai, leading to the loss of his livelihood. Now, six weeks after he was operated upon, he has regained functional recovery, with 60 per cent movement in the thumb.
“Sensation and nail growth in the thumb will come in a few weeks’ time,” says Dr K. Murali Mohan Reddy, who led a team of plastic surgeons and anaesthesiologists, to perform a six-hour-long operation, resurrecting the thumb by a microsurgical technique.
Shyam Sundar consulted them in last October, says Dr Reddy, but he was not psychologically prepared right then to undergo surgery. The patient returned a month later, was operated upon successfully and discharged in 10 days’ time. Dr Reddy is glad that his patient could now return to Dubai, resume his job and lead a normal life.