HCMC – During work, a female worker unfortunately had her entire scalp ripped off by a spinning machine. Luckily, this scalp patch was promptly operated on and successfully reattached by doctors.
The patient was successfully operated on by the doctor. Photo: NGUYEN LY
On February 20, Cho Ray Hospital announced that it had received a female patient whose entire scalp had been removed due to a work accident and was successfully surgically reattached.
Accordingly, at about 7:00 a.m. on January 18, while working at the spinning factory, Ms. PTKO (28 years old, residing in Tay Ninh province) had her hair sucked in by the suction force of the spinning machine, resulting in damage to her entire scalp. Hers was peeled off.
Immediately, Ms. O. was taken to Go Dau General Hospital for first aid, then transferred to Xuyen A Hospital Tay Ninh and transferred to Cho Ray Hospital at 10 o’clock.
At the same time, while the patient was being taken to the emergency room, workers at the factory took the peeled scalp and put it in a nylon bag in an ice box and transported it to the hospital later.
Immediately upon receiving the patient, the team of doctors from the Emergency Department – Cho Ray Hospital activated the red alert procedure and performed surgery at 1pm the same day. After surgery, the skin flap was well perfused and the severed ear flap survived well.
After 1 month, the patient was re-examined and the doctor assessed that the wound had healed well and the patient’s hair had also grown back.
Dr. Ngo Duc Hiep, Head of the Department of Burns – Plastic Surgery, Cho Ray Hospital, said that the patient’s case was a very serious injury that was difficult to treat because the entire scalp was peeled off, and this patch of skin was also damaged. being crushed in the machine causing blood vessels to be crushed. Fortunately, the patient was taken to the hospital quite quickly, the scalp was preserved, and brought to the hospital in time.
Also according to the doctor, in case the stripped scalp is not properly preserved and becomes necrotic, treatment will be very difficult, and in some cases the patient’s hair will not grow back.
Doctor Pham Thanh Viet, Head of General Planning Department, Cho Ray Hospital, added that when an organ leaves the body, it will lose blood supply. In less than 6 hours, if this part is reconnected and re-opened, the success rate is high. However, the later this time passes, the higher the necrosis rate will be. In this case, if the exposed oily skin is damaged, the “journey” to find skin to cover for the patient will be extremely arduous.
According to statistics, on average each year, Cho Ray Hospital receives about 8-10 cases of patients with bald heads due to work accidents and daily life accidents. However, because patients live in remote provinces, improperly preserve the peeled scalp, and are brought to the hospital late, most of them cannot have surgery to reattach it.
