HAND SURGERY

Our hands serve many purposes. Hands help us eat, dress, write, earn a living, create art and do many other activities. To accomplish these tasks and activities, our hands require sensation and movement, such as joint motion, tendon gliding and muscle contraction.

When a problem takes place in the hand, care must be given to all the different types of tissues that make function of the hand possible. Hand surgeons are specifically trained to give that care:

Hand surgery is the field of medicine that deals with problems of the hand, wrist and forearm. Hand surgeons care for these problems without surgery, and they are specially trained to operate when necessary. Hand surgeons are orthopedic, plastic or general surgeons who have additional training in surgery of the hand and treatment of conditions and injuries.

Hands

Fractures and Sprains

Tendon, Nerve and Blood vessel repair

Amputations and replantation

Carpal tunnel syndrome- open and endoscopic

Trigger Finger

Dupytren’s Contracture – Surgical and XiaFlex Treatment (non-surgical)

Arthritis and joint replacement

Tendonitis

DeQuervain’s

Birth Defects

Claw hand and other finger and hand deformities

Laceration Repairs

Animal Bites and Infection Treatment

Scar contracture revisions

Cysts, skin cancer and tumor excision

Microsurgery

Microsurgical procedures are performed on parts of the body that are best visualized under a microscope. Examples of such structures are small blood vessels, nerves, and tubes. Microsurgery uses techniques that have been performed by surgeons since the early twentieth century, such as blood vessel repair and organ transplantation, but under conditions that make traditional vascular surgery difficult or impossible.

Microsurgical Procedures

The first microvascular surgery, using a microscope to aid in the repair of blood vessels, was described by Jules Jacobson of the University of Vermont in 1960. The first successful replantation (reattachment of an amputated body part) was reported in 1964 by Harry Bunke. This replantation of a rabbit’s ear was significant because blood vessels smaller than 0.04 in (0.1 cm)—similar in size to the blood vessels found in a human hand—were successfully attached. Two years later, the successful replantation of a toe to the hand of a monkey was made possible using microsurgical techniques. Soon thereafter, microsurgery began being used in a number of clinical settings.