IN 1764, TISSOT published his translation of Bilguer's Dissertation sur l'inutilité de l'amputation des membres (Fig 1) in which Bilguer condemned the indiscriminate amputation of limbs on the battlefield for gunshot wounds, arterial injuries, open fractures, and loss of soft tissues. He believed that the limbs of many of the soldiers would survive and spare these individuals the socioeconomic stigmata of the amputee.
This presentation represents an extension of Bilguer's conservative thinking, since a viable major index finger has been salvaged and improved to a significant degree after the traumatic division of both neurovascular bundles, the flexor tendons, and comminution of the proximal phalanx.
A digit may survive after the division of both digital arteries as in a near amputation if the remaining bridge of tissue contains sufficient radicles of the dorsal metacarpal arteries. Rarely, finger survival has been reported after replacement following complete severance. In either case blood flow