Conservative management of fingertip amputations.

A method of conservative treatment of fingertip amputations, allowing for spontaneous healing of the defect, was evaluated in a one-year study involving 17 consecutive patients and 21 amputations. Six presented with exposed bone in the lesion. These injuries healed with excellent results in terms of maintenace of maximum finger length and minimization of cosmetic deformity and functional disability. Rapid retrun to work was possible in most cases and morbidity associated with surgery was avoided.