SAMC is one of only two sites in Alabama that can reattach hands and fingers that have been completely cut off, a procedure known to surgeons as “replants.” A two-finger replant was recently performed at SAMC by orthopedic surgeon and hand specialist Dr. Skip Chitwood. Dr. Chitwood says that the specialty of hand surgery was started during World War II due to traumatic injuries to soldiers. If a soldier’s upper extremities were injured it would require the work of many type of surgeons to take care of the injury…orthopedics for the bones, vascular surgeons for the veins, microsurgeons for the nerve repairs and then plastic surgeons for the outer hand.

 

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