Traumatic amputations and the need for a replantation service in Finland

The authors review a series of 290 upper extremity amputee patients injured between 1974-79 from a 400,000 population area of one central hospital. Among these amputation injuries were 55 cases which were considered "serious", i.e. effecting seriously the function of the hand. Calculations were extrapolated to obtain reliable numbers for the need of a replantation service in Finland within a population of 5 million. According to the available data 90-160 patients annually would need a replantation service for their amputation injuries inthe country. Some conclusions were also drawn about the results obtained with or without replantation surgery among the "seriously injured" group. The results obtained with the replantation service were clearly superior to the results achieved without replantation.