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J. EDWARD FLYNN, M.D.; C. NASON BURDEN, M.D.

AMA Arch Surg. 1962;85(3):394-398.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

An amputated thumb causes an estimated loss of 50% of the entire hand's function. A hand without a thumb is, at best, a useful hook.

A partial amputation distal to the metacarpophalangeal joint usually requires nothing more than a well-padded stump which is not adherent to bone and a stump which is free from neuroma (Fig. 1).

An intact thumb may be so adducted by skin and muscle contracture that it is rendered useless. Excision of scar, stripping of the attachment of the adductor pollicis tendon and providing the tendon a more proximal attachment, and the use of a long diamond-shaped pedicle flap, usually give a good result¹ (Fig. 2). A thumb amputated near the metacarpophalangeal joint may have so much scar and contracture about the cleft that a useless thumb results. If the amputation is at the metacarpophalangeal joint, a useful thumb can be obtained by deepening the . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
BOSTON

Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery, Tufts University School of Medicine, Visiting Surgeon, First (Tufts) Surgical Service, Boston City Hospital (Dr. Flynn); Surgeon, Orthopedics Service, Morton Hospital, Taunton, Mass. (Dr. Burden).; From the Department of Surgery, Tufts University School of Medicine and the First (Tufts) Surgical Service, Boston City Hospital.

Footnotes
Received for publication Nov. 13, 1961.

Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, Bal Harbour, Miami Beach, Fla., Jan. 7, 1961.

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