Clinical Outcome of Digital Replantation using the Fibrin Glue-Assisted Microvascular Anastomosis Technique

Abstract

A series of 36 digital replants is reported in which microvascular anastomoses were each performed with four to six stitches and topically applied fibrin glue. Thirty-two digits survived, comparable to survival with conventional microvascular anastomosis. The average operative time per replanted digit was 3.2 hours, considerably less than documented with standard replantation technique (4.5 hours per digit). These clinical findings indicate that fibrin glue-assisted microvascular anastomosis does not compromise replant outcome and can reduce the operative time by reducing the number of microsutures that need to be placed in each anastomosis.