Mobile blast injury

A 10-year-old boy was brought by his parents with a history of mobile phone blast while he was playing game on the phone for half an hour and the phone was getting charged. His father had bought this mobile 6 months back from the local market, costing about Rs. 1000; however, he is not aware of manufacturer of mobile phone or its battery. The patient sustained multiple injuries over chest, abdomen, face and right hand. The patient was referred to us 10 h after the incident. He was immediately taken to the operating room where all the wounds were thoroughly debrided. Abrasions over face, chest and abdomen were cleaned, and lacerated wounds over face and chest were sutured.

The right hand was grossly mutilated with amputation of the index, middle and ring fingers from metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint and little finger through proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint. The right thumb carpometacarpal (CMC) joint was dislocated with soft-tissue loss over the dorsum of hand and palm.

The wound was thoroughly debrided and amputations were revised. The raw area over palm was primarily closed. K-wire fixation of 1^st CMC joint was done. The raw area over the dorsum of hand with exposed 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th metacarpal heads was covered with right reverse radial forearm flap. Partial flap necrosis was seen which was debrided and later covered with split-thickness skin graft. The patient was then rehabilitated with intensive physiotherapy [Figure 1].