Toe Into Finger

In the Annals of Surgery last week, Drs. Vilray Papin Blair and Louis T. Byars of St. Louis, Mo. told how they made a finger out of a toe. The patient was a pretty two-year-old girl who had accidentally lost the top joint of the middle finger of her right hand. It was not easy.

First the doctors flexed the child's right knee, bound her forearm to her leg with adhesive tape and tied her hand over her foot. Then they cut her second toe two-thirds of the way around, so that it opened on a hinge of live tissue. Then they fitted the bones together so that the last joint and a half of the toe capped the second joint of the finger. Finally they peeled the skin off the finger tip and joined it to the cut end of the toe, carefully matching the tendons and stitching them together.

The child remained in this cramped position for four weeks while finger and toe grew together, supplied by a common circulation. Then the doctors severed the remaining flesh that bound the toe to the foot, carefully covered the stump with skin. The toe-finger was protected with a leather jacket until completely healed.

At present, said the doctors, the new finger has good color, good circulation. The child cannot flex it completely, but it is gradually growing more limber. And it looks more like a finger every day.

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