Use of Proximal Phalanx of the Index Finger to Reconstruct Thumb Metacarpal: A Case Report

Abstract

A 12 year old girl sustained injuries to her left hand and abdominal wall, from a mortar shelling incident. The index and thumb metacarpal were destroyed by the blast while the abdominal injury was nonpenetrating. Five days after debridement, the distal thumb and index finger remained viable. The proximal phalanx of the index finger was mobilized on its vascular pedicle as a composite graft to reconstruct the metacarpal of her thumb. The remaining skin defect was covered later by a fasciocutaneous flap based on the dorsal interosseous artery and split thickness graft. We present this case as the first one reported in literature.