A 7-hour long emergency plastic surgery at Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre, replanted a 30-year-old woman’s scalp which was ripped off, exposing the entire skull, the forehead, and two-thirds of the left ear, in a freak accident at a manufacturing unit. The key challenge of the surgery involved identifying the damaged micro arteries and veins, as thin as hair strands, in the scalp and joining them to restore the blood supply.
The medical team had to perform the same procedure, known as microvascular anastomosis, one more time, a few hours after the marathon surgery, as the blood supply was suboptimal in a part of the replanted scalp. These timely surgical interventions literally gave a facelift to the woman from Madurai, a semi-skilled labourer from a poor household, who otherwise would have had to live the rest of her life with permanent disfigurement and mutilating injuries.
The scalp consists of not only skin but also many layers such as subcutaneous tissue, and an intricate network of small blood vessels. It continues into the forehead, where, in the region of the eyebrow, it gives way to the muscles of facial expression. The goal of a replantation surgery is to restore blood supply, nerve function, and overall viability to the detached body part.
Date: 30.01.2024
