How much tissue can be healed?

There is no formula. It totally depends on what the wound is, how much is the blood supply affected, what is the injured person’s general health like.

What do you mean without bone? Broken bones mend. A friend of mine a few years ago was working on a new material for large breaks in bone, meaning when there is a lot of bone lost, that wouls allow bone to heal quickly and dissolve in the body, unlike when pins are needed to support a large break. I’m not sure where that research is now. There is also a powder that can grow back fingers, I am not sure how much of a finger. I know the powder was at minimum in human trials, not sure if it is approved.

No matter what there has to be blood suppy of course, or the tissue dies.

It’s not clear if there is an exact description of how much of an injury can be repaired. Certainly Treatment, parts of the finger that have been detached can be reattached, if it has not been too long since the detachment. Serious problems, however, are the territory of the hand specialist.

I found an article about the treatment of industrial work accidents. There are some seriously gross pictures in this article. It seems that skin grafts, if performed soon enough, can be fairly successful. The before and after pictures are quite dramatic. I think this article will answer all your questions on this subject and more.

Have fun.

PS—from the results paragraph:

The outcome depends on the severity of the primary trauma. In ten patients with avulsion of the skin of only the palmar or dorsal surface of the hand and digits, without involvement of deeper tissues, complete of almost complete functional restoration was obtained. In the other fifteen patients with circumferential defects of the fingers and hand, often with concomitant lesions of the more deeply situated tissues, useful prehension was preserved in even the most severely affected hands provided that skin resurfacing was carried out in time. Only after delayed, secondary skin coverage did a hand remain completely rigid.

It depends on the cells and the level of injury. Here’s an interesting Wiki reference. Just scroll down to Humans: They give a very good example of a surgeon who had his finger tip amputated due to infection:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_(biology)

I don’t know much about fingers, but, I did have an amazing experience with a dog I had once years ago.
I had never witnessed such an extraordinary healing process!
I had a 90 lb. hound dog and when I moved to the country, within the first few months he was shot in the upper hip by a rancher who saw him chasing his cattle.
The cattle had escaped their property and came through a hole in the fence onto my property where my dog chased them back into their pasture.

The owner only saw my dog chasing the cattle and did not know they had escaped and were on my property.
They paid most of the vet bill later when they discovered their error and the hole in the fence.
Anyway, I digress, but…my dog was shot with a 30–06 which blew a fist sized hole in his hip.
It was a miracle that it missed the bone and he underwent 2 hours of surgery to close the would and have shot removed from his paw pads.

A few days after the surgery the wound burst open due to the extreme muscle damage and location which made it difficult to heal with the dogs movements inspite of every effort to keep him quiet.
The vets decided to leave it open and had me use a giant syringe and cleanse the wound several times a day with a betadine solution.
It was a HORRIBLE injury to behold and I couldn’t believe it would ever heal.
But…the wound filled with granular tissue and began to close from the inside out, filling in like a crater from the inside out.

I never knew about granular tissue and how this healing process occurred and I’d never have believed it had I not been witness to the process.
Over about a 6 week period the giant hole in his flank filled in and eventually only left a crescent semi-circle about 3 inches across.
Truly a miracle!

@Coloma YOU are such a hero. Well done!

Without surgery, antibiotics, etc., the body’s ability to heal a hand or finger can be very limited. Together with modern medicine however, the human body gets to really strut it’s stuff in regards to healing grievous wounds. Especially considering how fragile we are to begin with.

@wundayatta That article was fascinating. Very morbid imagery of course, but made for a very, very interesting read. I couldn’t tear myself away from the words or pictures. Thanks for the link!

I don’t know much about healing a finger, but I have experience with wounds.

I had some abdominal surgeries this past year and the second one was open, which means that the incision went from just above my pubic area to about an inch above my belly button. There was a drain placed in the bottom part for the first 24 hours after surgery and when it was removed it left what I can only describe as a big gaping hole – very disconcerting. The rest was stapled shut for 14 days, which is what is recommended. Now I had an awful time with my appetite and with nausea after this surgery, so for several weeks I was not getting proper nutrition. This meant that my body had not done enough healing in the meantime to close up the wound, and when the staples came out, it came open up to my belly button. So that – nutrition – is a huge factor.

The wound was maybe 4 inches long and 2 inches wide and half an inch deep. Wounds like that have to heal from the inside out, otherwise you can end up with pockets of fluid trapped which will cause you problems down the road. So you pack it with wet gauze and a dry dressing on top to wick the drainage out.

Over, let’s see, the course of 4 months, I managed to get the wound smaller but it still wasn’t anywhere near gone. I was still having a lot of trouble with eating for about the first 2 months of that. Just when it would start to get better it would get infected – I had MRSA twice, it’s damn near impossible to avoid – and it would get bigger again. Finally it got designated a chronic wound because it seemed like my body was not capable of healing it (in the midst of healing up from surgery, was way too skinny, just not in good general health). Luckily after 4 months it was time for my third surgery and while I was under the surgeon went in and pulled the sides of the wound closer together. I was finally able to heal it closed within about 2 months aftert he did that. I have a hell of a scar now.

Hope any of this info is helpful.

@Mariah, is there some compromise to your immune system?

No, my immune system is actually overactive; the reason for the surgery was an autoimmune disease. I had been on immunosuppressants before, but I had stopped them well before surgery. But all surgery will compromise your immune system, so that probably had something to do with it.

@Mariah, Awww… that sucks. I’m glad that the last surgery turned out better.

Oh yeah, I’m doing great now, thanks! I have learned – and I really think doctors should specify – that 14 day timespan they say to take out the staples, that is not a good general rule if your surgery has affected your appetite. Bleh, what a pain.

Thank you all for your answers, I found most of what I was looking for in @wundayatta ‘s article. I was thinking about the kind of injury in the pictures marked 3 and I’m pretty surprised to see how nicely it has healed. @Coloma I hate that rancher. And as he’s the first rancher I’ve ever heard about I now hate all ranchers. So glad the dog made it :)