Two weeks after he lost his right hand while working on a wood splitter, thirty-year-old Bojan Krneta from Prijedor is well on his way to using it again, all thanks to the skill of Banja Luka surgeons.

The surgical teams of the University Clinical Center of the RS in Banja Luka, specialists in plastic and reconstructive surgery, specialists in orthopedics and traumatology, with the support of anesthesiologists, performed the replantation of a complete severed hand for the first time in the history of the University Hospital of RS. So far, only parts of the hand, i.e. fingers, have been replanted.

"The operation lasted close to five hours because it was necessary to connect bones, then nerves, arteries and veins. We managed to replant that part of a patient who was admitted with an extremely severe injury to his right hand, which was amputated at the level of the wrist. The procedure was performed under general endotracheal anesthesia, and osteosynthesis of the bones of the wrist with an external fixator was performed first, followed by reconstruction of arterial and venous blood vessels, as well as nerves. We reacted quickly, already an hour after admission, we started the operation, because with such serious injuries, time is a key factor," explained the head of the Clinic for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery of the UKC Banja Luka, Dr. Nikola Baroš, who was also the leader of the team that performed replantation.