Surgery

Hand Surgery

Our plastic and reconstructive surgeons use an effective multidisciplinary approach to treat conditions that affect your hands. This includes chronic (persistent) conditions, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, and acute (sudden) hand injuries, such as severe cutting accidents and finger amputations.

We use our combined expertise to complete all kinds of hand surgery, including:

  • Carpal tunnel release— we perform surgery only after trying non-surgical treatments, such as physical therapy, supportive splints, oral medications, and injectable steroids. When surgery is needed, it is done under local anesthesia on an outpatient basis and leaves a small scar in the palm to treat the tingling in the fingers and severe pain and numbness brought on by the condition.
  • Fracture repair—treated through surgery, or the bone can be set and splinted or casted to hold it in place to heal. Fractures can be the result of weak bones or trauma.
  • Trigger finger release—pain, stiffness, and locking of the digits can be treated by a single steroid injection, or when that fails, a simple outpatient procedure under local anesthesia can permanently correct the locking.
  • Congenital deformity repair (fused fingers, absent fingers, extra fingers) —surgery balances the tendons and stabilizes joints to achieve normal hand function and may involve rebuilding missing digits, including the thumb. The surgeon may perform a toe-to-thumb transfer. Also used to correct conditions in children such as webbed fingers (syndactyly) and extra digits (polydactyly).
  • Ganglion and tumor removal—using minimally invasive techniques, involves small open incisions to remove ganglions (benign, fluid-filled tumors of the wrist) and other tumors.
  • Joint replacement (arthoplasty)—treats rheumatoid arthritis or traumatic arthritis by replacing a damaged or diseased joint with a new joint made of man-made material or your own tissue.
  • Nerve repair—corrects nerve damage caused by injury. If the nerve is severed or cut completely, your surgeon may reattach the nerve directly to the other end or use a nerve graft, taking nerves from other parts of the body, to repair the damaged area.
  • Tendon repair—repairs the damaged or cut tendons that attach muscle to bone and may include tendon grafts, which replace the damaged tendon with fibers from other parts of the body. Your follow up care will be supervised by a hand therapist.
  • Replantation—replaces fingers or hands that have been severed. This complex procedure uses microsurgery to repair your blood vessels and nerves.

Following surgery, you will work with our physical therapists, key members of your treatment team, to ensure that you achieve the best possible function of your hands.