• Seong Hwan Kim, Dong Wan Kim, Jae Ha Hwang, and Kwang Seog Kim.
• Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Korea.
• J. Korean Med. Sci. 2018 Feb 26; 33 (9): e72e72.

BackgroundDigital replantation has become a well-established technique that has revolutionized hand surgery. One of the most important factors to a successful replantation is less than 12 hours of warm and 24 hours of cold ischemia time. The purpose of this article was to present a concept of door-to-surgery time and test the hypothesis that success in distal digital replantation is associated with this time.MethodsForty-five patients with 49 distal amputations were included in the study. Data regarding patient demographics, amputation characteristics, ischemia time, and surgical outcome were collected. Factors related to a successful replantation were analyzed. Fisher's exact test was used for statistical analysis.ResultsType I, II, and III Yamano classification were noted in 11 (22.4%), 11 (22.4%), and 27 (55.1%) amputations. All the digits had arterial anastomoses while 19 (38.8%) digits were replanted without venous anastomosis. The mean door-to-surgery time was 229 minutes. The overall success rate was 77.6%. There were no differences in the survival rates between replantations with or without venous anastomosis. Patients with less than 180 minutes of door-to-surgery time had a significantly better survival rate compared to patients with greater time.ConclusionThe overall success rate was 77.6%. Patients with less than 180 minutes of door-to-surgery time had a significantly greater success rate (95.0%) compared to patients with longer door-to-surgery time (65.5%). Further effort must be made to achieve this goal in digital replantation.© 2018 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

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