Marius Constantin, 28 years old (Zalla, Vizcaya, Spain), loss of the five fingers of his right hand due to the explosion of a high-powered firecracker: “The intervention of Dr. Piñal gives me the freedom to fend for myself”.

The affected area was kept ‘buried’ in the abdomen for two weeks in order to preserve viable tissues and structures. Dr. Piñal then performed a non-anatomical recreation of the patient’s hand by transferring three toes to the upper extremity.

Firstly, the Spanish surgeon transferred the big toe of one of the feet to the area previously occupied by the thumb, to later transplant the second and third toe of the other, with their respective metatarsals, and thus achieve opposition movement.

Thereby, through the combination of various microsurgery techniques, the patient went from an almost amputated hand at wrist level to have a functional tripod structure, with ability to hold objects and to perform simple everyday tasks.