[Repair of fingertip amputations using composite grafts: nine clinical cases]

Even if a digital replantation is not possible, we present a series of nine cases of fingertip amputations treated with clinical efficacy by using a composite graft from the amputated finger part.

All of our eight patients (four children and four adults) were traumatically amputated. The level of amputation passed by the bunch of P3 and carried partially or completely the ungula. The reposition was always performed under local anaesthesia. Our evaluation related on the survival of the composite grafts, the functional and the aesthetic result.

The composite grafts were revascularised in eight amputations out of nine, with a satisfactory remote result on the function as well as aesthetic level.

After a short recall of the alternative surgical methods of the treatment of the fingertip amputations, we will insist on the simplicity and the reliability of the repositioning of a composite graft, recommended for us from the start and depending on the traumatic level. In the event of a failure, surgeons still have the possibility of realising the other alternative surgical methods.