What happens when eels bite?

Stone eel is a kind of sea eel, which is fierce in nature and easy to hurt people when slaughtered. Mr. Li's family often eats stone eels, and he also has some experience in killing stone eels. In the past, he would freeze the stone eels to death in the refrigerator and then take them out for slaughter.

On the same day, Mr. Li saw that the eel he bought was not as lively as usual, and even looked a little dying. In order to save trouble, Mr. Li picked up a kitchen knife and cut it directly at the eel head. The head and body of eels have been basically separated.

It's just that Mr. Li never imagined that this eel jumped up and directly bit Mr. Li's right finger while chopping. Mr. Li's fingers hurt instantly and he was bleeding. He picked up a towel and simply bandaged it, and then he and his wife came to the PLA 9 10 Hospital.

Rupture of extensor tendon of right middle finger

Successful operation of recovery function

Dr. Fu Zuchang, Department of Microsurgery, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, No.910 Hospital of PLA, received Mr. Li. He carefully examined the wound and found that he had three fingers injured, namely the index finger, middle finger and ring finger of his right hand, and the middle finger of his right hand was the most seriously injured. There is a wound deep enough to see the bone ring below the first knuckle of his right middle finger, and it is preliminarily judged that the extensor tendon on the back of his right middle finger has been completely broken.

Subsequently, Dr. Fu immediately X-rayed Mr. Li's right hand. The results showed that the middle finger bone of Mr. Li's right hand was only slightly bruised. Fortunately, there is no fracture.

Although there is no finger fracture, Mr. Li's right middle finger can't be straightened due to the rupture of extensor tendon, so it needs surgery to suture the broken tendon and restore the function of finger extension.

In order to avoid infection in Mr. Li's wound caused by bacterial growth in the mouth of the eel, Dr. Fu carefully debrided the wound of Mr. Li's right finger during the operation, then sutured the two shallow wounds of the index finger and the ring finger, finally concentrated on the middle finger, carefully removed the trimmed necrotic tissue, anastomosed the tendon and stitched it, and finally stitched the finger skin.

An hour later, the operation was successfully completed, and Mr. Li's wife, who was anxiously waiting outside the operation door, breathed a sigh of relief. "I didn't expect the eels with broken heads to be so lethal. It's terrible!"

The inquiry found that Mr. Li's accident was not a case. Although the eel's head is broken, its nerve is not dead, and biting is only a conditioned reflex. The nerve centers of eels and other animals are distributed all over the body, so their organs can keep moving independently for a longer time. After their heads are cut off, each organ can independently maintain its original motor function for a certain period of time. So once you touch the chopped eel head, you will also have a conditioned reflex and open your mouth to bite. Besides eels, snakes are the same, and they may bite people after their heads are cut off.

You Ruijin, director of the Department of Orthopaedics 19 of the No.910 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, also specially reminded the public: "Wounds bitten by eels, eel bites, crab claws, etc. must not be simply treated and bandaged, but should be thoroughly debrided and disinfected in time. In order to avoid infection, it is best to go to the hospital for treatment and inject tetanus vaccine. "