Replantation of Cryopreserved Fingers: An “Organ Banking” Breakthrough

Although cryopreservation has been widely used in clinical practice, it remains limited to small or thin bloodless tissues with a simple structure and function. In August of 2002, the authors performed the first successful transplantation of a cryopreserved vascularized rat hind limb. Subsequently, the authors extended this cryopreservation technique to the preservation of human fingers. In December of 2002 and December of 2003, the authors performed two in situ implantations of cryopreserved amputated fingers for two patients by means of the "two-step" and programmed cryopreservation methods. In case 1, computed tomographic angiography was performed on the affected hand 6 months after surgery. In case 2, pieces of skin were obtained from the thawed amputated finger for pathologic examination before replantation. One finger was cryopreserved for 81 days and the other for 5 days. Both fingers were replanted successfully. Computed tomographic angiography revealed a patent radial proper digital artery in case 1. The pathologic results of case 2 showed satisfactory skin cell morphology. After 15- and 14-year follow-up assessments of the two patients, the replanted fingers achieved satisfactory appearance and function. The authors confirmed the effectiveness of deep cryopreservation for the long-term preservation of human fingers. The current application scope of these cryopreservation techniques includes small limbs with minimal amounts of muscle tissue. Therapeutic, V.