Cut finger - will the tip survive? **TW** Photos

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On Friday morning, I cut the tip off my ring finger with a mandolin. I found the piece, which was about 3mm thick, and I've stuck it back on with Steristrips (mainly because that was the only way to get the bleeding to stop).
Do you think the loose piece will survive, or should I take it off to let the bottom 'breathe'? It does have a dressing on but I changed it today.

If it was totally severed no. That piece will not reattach.
However it will help with healing and the fleshy part generally heals nicely.
keep the area clean, don’t disturb the scab, no smoking.

Thanks for that. Should I leave my extra piece on then? It was totally severed, yes. It bled a lot for a couple of hours (even with pressure etc) but seemed to stop when I found the missing piece.

Not sure the photo posted...

There is a delay in photos being visible now, so currently, I can't see it.

So has the bleeding stopped now? I agree, the cut off bit won't re-attach or re-grow. It will shrivel, dry and turn hard like leather eventually. After 3 days, its likely started to do this anyways. The skin on the open wound will eventually grow to cover the cut section, but depending how much flesh/fat was removed, you might always have a slight indent on that finger.

Personally, I'd remove the cut off bit and redress the finger with a non-adherent dressing. Wounds heal better/quicker with a dressing and it will help protect it. Show a pharmacist for dressing advice if unsure.

When I was four I cut the end of my finger off so it was hanging by tiny flap and they just stuck it back on with a huge fat bandage, for weeks though memory not to reliable.

It did take though and I just have a funny scar now. I was disappointed I didn't get a stitch at the time but it did stick on without.

Just under a week. I'm not sure it looks much better!

Has the tip come off or is it still hanging on? Do you have an updated pic?

Have you shown it to any actual health professionals? That’s a nasty wound. The flap looks like it’s not got a blood supply any more.

Tip was off right from the start - I dug it out of the mandolin.

A nurse friend has dressed it for me (sterile dressing stuff visible in both photos). I didn't attend A&E as I didn't think anything more could be done than cleaning and dressing it, which my friend did.

No blood supply in the but I cut off but it isn't keeping the wound bed covered.

Dear god go see a doctor, that IS an a&e job, quite obviously! A lot of good the dead tip with no blood supply keeping the wound covered when it could end up rotting and causing an infection. It needed/needs to be stitched up or something better than popping it on top like a gruesome lid and just wrapping it up.

My mum did the very same and required stitches at A&E as minor injuries had no slots left.

I don't think you can stitch it? The edges are far too far apart and there's no spare skin. I don't imagine they'd do vascular surgery to reattach my tip? I thought it might just graft on - grow roots, as it were.

I meant they might have considered stitching it on when it was fresh to encourage vascular regrowth, rather than just plonking it on top.

The nurse at A&E created a flap of skin to stitch. She has no feeling at the tip over a year later.

One thing the nurse did ask though 'were you using the guard?!' Which made us laugh cos if she had have been she wouldn't have sliced her finger!!

I was going to say that I'm always using a guard in future. In fact I'm never using a bloody mandolin again!! I'll have fat potato slices and live with it!

It is hard to know what is an A&E job and what isn't. A cut finger didn't seem worthy, particularly with the ridiculous waits they now have. I looked online and people with much bigger mandolin cuts seemed to manage OK so I thought best just to manage ir myself (albeit with a nurse to help clean and dress it).

Bloody hell, you should have gone to a&e for that!

I dug it out of the mandolin. 😵

Sorry, yes, I commented when it first happened and knew the tip had come completely off. In your 1st pic, you were sitting the cut off bit on top of the wound.
What I meant was- is the cut off bit still sitting on the wound, or has it shriveled, dried and come off now?

It's still sitting on top (picture up thread is from today). I feel like peeling it off would hurt, going by how just taking the Steristrips off hurt...

I think at least some of the tip of it is a goner looking at todays picture. However it looks better than your original picture and will slowly sort itself out. It's amazing what will grow back.

My DD had about .5cm severed at age of five. You could see tip of the bone. She had surgery and I honestly can't remember if they reattached it or not. We were on holiday in Scotland. It was severed at an angle so most of her nail was still there. She has slightly shorter and squarer shape to that finger now which seems to suggest they didn't reattach it. Her finger did turn black at one stage - freaked out the nurse who was changing her dressing!
I certainly would have gone to the A&E in your case though.

Had similar injury last year, healed well and have no scar. GP me gave fucidin cream to prevent infection.

Haven’t used the mandolin since!

For anybody wondering (!), totally incredibly, the severed tip survived. Yesterday, for the first time, the entire severed section had blood flow and was pink and warm!

Truly amazing what the body can do and in just around three weeks too. Pretty damn impressed!
(Still never using a mandolin again though!)

Not sure pics attached