This is awesome tho, especially for the soldiers. I hope they get this stuff on the market soon.

Sorry to pop anyone’s balloon, but there’s nothing in those photo’s that looks particularly unusual. Unfortunately, the pictures are all shot looking into the wound, rather than showing the length of the finger, making it hard to judge the anatomic level of injury and severity of the loss. But it sounds like a typical distal tip amputation of some skin and underlying fat.

Leaving an amputated tip wound open, to heal by what is called “secondary intent” is pretty much standard practice; without an untreated matching amputation to compare, or at least better photo documentation, the role of “Pixie Dust” is pretty much impossible to assess in this case.

Epithelial cells (i.e. skin) will normally advance forward (he mentions the “white edge”) over a healthy open wound, steadily reducing its diameter circumferentially from the edges inward. Additionally, wounds and healing tissue contract, stretching and pulling adjacent skin and fat into the defect from all sides as well. Nerve regeneration is usually quite good at that distal level. In fact, one of the problems with resurfacing this type of injury with a skin graft or skin flap is that it often results in poorer sensation than you get with simple spontaneous healing like this.

The nail plate grows from the “germinal matrix” which is the white colored area of the “half moon” you can see at the base of the nail. The rest of the nail bed (”sterile matrix”) just keeps the plate adhered to the finger and keeps it shaped correctly; you can tolerate the loss of some of the sterile matrix, especially out toward the end of the finger, without much of an effect on the nail.

We often see this type of injury from guys cleaning meat slicers. The important thing to remember when treating those is to ask the name of the deli they work at, so you don’t order a sandwich from there for the next few days!

bofh on April 30, 2008 at 6:06 PM

Ya know…I was just thinking the same thing… ;)

right2bright on April 30, 2008 at 5:04 PM

…or something from the few brain cells they have left.

I’m calling hoax on this, because if it were true, every drug company on the planet would be throwing untold billions at whoever came up with this.

MadisonConservative on April 30, 2008 at 3:16 PM

It comes from the University of Pittsburgh lab and the U.S. military is reportedly interested in the development. They’re only now beginning official clinical trials.

amerpundit on April 30, 2008 at 3:33 PM

The soldier discussed at the end of the story, Robert Henline, is also discussed in this story.

Ah Sarge,we got a problem!,Oh sh-t how much did you put on!

What,we have to evacuate the base!

Base Commander to Pentagon,Oh that is a really big problem!

Pentagon to State Governor: Did you say evacute the State!

Governor to President: What,we gotta evac the entire lower
States!

OldEnglish on April 30, 2008 at 9:14 PM

Yep. Tissue. Bone. Skin. Even fingerprint.

My poor husband had an accident a month ago. He had his hands on his sides while talking to someone at a valve shop – he’s an inspector – when one of the machines went crazy and cut up to one quarter of an inch of his left thumb. He took the severed part to the emergency room and was told there was no way to reattach it. A plastic surgeon took care of closing the exposed flesh and bone, even cutting a small bit of bone to make it even.

He took one week off for workmen’s comp, and three weeks for classes in Houston – all paid by his company. He has now returned to work, but the wound has not completely healed. My concern is that he would not be able to do as much as he used to. Even his immediate boss was concerned he had to find another line of work.

I think this “pixie dust” may help him where the surgeon could not. I would definitely want to find out more about this.

That’s one stump that’s leaving his campaign stumped.

Let’s hope this pixie dust works wonders for the guys over in Walter Reed.

rbj

someone should call them and ask them if they are using it…

I think it’s true, and I think it’s been out for a while. I mean, Easter was a month ago, right?

Leaving an amputated tip wound open, to heal by what is called “secondary intent” is pretty much standard practice; without an untreated matching amputation to compare, or at least better photo documentation, the role of “Pixie Dust” is pretty much impossible to assess in this case.

Epithelial cells (i.e. skin) will normally advance forward (he mentions the “white edge”) over a healthy open wound, steadily reducing its diameter circumferentially from the edges inward. Additionally, wounds and healing tissue contract, stretching and pulling adjacent skin and fat into the defect from all sides as well. Nerve regeneration is usually quite good at that distal level. In fact, one of the problems with resurfacing this type of injury with a skin graft or skin flap is that it often results in poorer sensation than you get with simple spontaneous healing like this.

The nail plate grows from the “germinal matrix” which is the white colored area of the “half moon” you can see at the base of the nail. The rest of the nail bed (“sterile matrix”) just keeps the plate adhered to the finger and keeps it shaped correctly; you can tolerate the loss of some of the sterile matrix, especially out toward the end of the finger, without much of an effect on the nail.

We often see this type of injury from guys cleaning meat slicers. The important thing to remember when treating those is to ask the name of the deli they work at, so you don’t order a sandwich from there for the next few days!

Pigs are cool.

Geronimo on April 30, 2008 at 3:12 PM

Ha! I was going to say, this wouldn’t be possible if we were muslims.

JFS61 on April 30, 2008 at 4:29 PM

…why?

- The Cat

Enrique on April 30, 2008 at 3:55 PM

What is referred to today as leprosy was only a subset of what the Bible referred to as leprosy.

Jesus restored sight to the blind. And healed the lame. And basically founded Western civilization single-handedly.

He’s also a man.

Next time try to make sense when you blaspheme.