What Should (& Shouldn’t) You Do If You Cut Off A Finger?

Kitchen accidents are common, yet most severed fingers can’t be usefully reattached, because most people don’t have all the “necessaries” in order. So, how to be better-prepared than most?

You’ll want to watch this now, with (presumably) a full complement of fingers, rather than having to do a panicked internet search and finding it’s harder than you thought to unlock and use your phone with a severed finger.

Dr. Jason Hoellwarth explains:

Can it be saved?

An example of how everything can go right: Dr. Priya cleanly severs her finger at home (unintentionally, not just for our education), and:

1. cleans it,
2. bandages it,
3. avoids ibuprofen,
4. preserves the finger in a clean moist towel in a cooler,
5. gets rapid surgical repair,
6. completes a course of specialized physical therapy (to re-establish the brain-muscle connection via the newly connected nerves)

…thus enjoying a full recovery.

Good news: severed digits can survive a few hours* without blood supply; cooling can extend this to 6–12 hours before tissue death makes reattachment impossible.

_{*This is a big difference contrasted with the brain, which under normal circumstances has a 5-minute oxygen window after which currently irreversible tissue death occurs (cooling can extend this though, as is seen with people who fall into icy lakes, clinically die, and can be “brought back to life” quite a bit later because paradoxically, the hypothermia saved them).}

Bad news: many hospitals lack equipment or specialists for urgent reattachments, and nerve repair is particularly difficult and rarely restores full sensation or movement.

That said, there are some modern advances that are a big help if available, for example surgically anchoring implants into bone creates a direct skeletal connection, reducing weight strain, improving comfort, and allowing some sensory feedback.

Failing that, Dr. Hoellwarth recommends getting a good prosthetic, or just opting to go on with one finger fewer.

For more on all of this, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

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Take care!