167 THUMB REPLANTATIONS AND REVASCULARISATIONS - EARLY MICROVASCULAR RESULTS

One hundred sixty-seven thumb replantations and revascularisations wer e performed from 1977 to 1987 by the Ljubljana microsurgical team. Ear ly microvascular results of thumb replantations and early reoperations were analysed retrospectively. Age of the patients, level of traumati c amputation, mechanism of injury, use of arterial grafts, severity (t otal-subtotal) of amputation and occurrence of thrombosis were potenti al survival factors analysed with logistic regression analysis. The ov erall success rate for this series was 66% (72% for failures to revasc ularise excluded). The most frequent cause of failure was Venous throm bosis. The most critical time for failure was the first 4 days after t he replantation. No microvascular complication occurred later than the seventh day and no reoperation was successful later than the third da y after replantation. Survival factors were studied with logistic regr ession analysis which showed that the model was not statistically sign ificant. However, estimation of relative risks gave us useful but stat istically uncertain information regarding the survival factors inspect ed. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.