When your hands can’t function properly or cause you pain due to injury, arthritis or the normal aging process, even a minor problem can affect your quality of life.
Our hand surgeons appreciate how essential hands are to how you work, drive, tie your shoes, cook a meal or even brush your hair. We know how pain, swelling and decreased strength can limit what you do and how frustrating that can be. As board-certified and fellowship-trained hand surgeons, we specialize in reconstructive hand surgery that restores maximum function.
As one of the first hand surgery locations in New England, we have helped to develop the specialized discipline of hand surgery right here. We invented some important approaches to thumb arthritis, limited wrist arthrodesis, slack wrist reconstruction and STT fusion. Our team is invested in a culture of excellence and teaching the next generation of hand surgeons. We expand the scope of knowledge in hand surgery with daily research and knowledge-sharing among our many surgeons at the Bone & Joint Institute.
Reconstructive Hand Surgery Expertise
A detailed physical exam of the hand with a “laying on of hands” by an experienced expert is critical because its small structures don’t often reveal the problem with ultrasound or MRI scans. We take a dynamic, functional approach to see how your hand is not working, diagnose the problem and set up effective treatment.
We focus on reconstructive hand surgery, like restoring function to arthritic thumbs, alleviating compressive neuropathy with carpal tunnel release surgery and treating brachial plexus palsy from traumatic injuries with delicate nerve transfers. We also commonly treat overuse injuries to the hand and wrist, including De Quervain’s disease and tendinosis, as well as wrist bone and hand fractures.
The Crucial Role of our Certified Hand Therapists
Shoulders, elbows and hands work together to help you reach and grasp, but hand function is the most critical to getting them all working together properly. This is why hand therapy is intimately associated with virtually every treatment, and starting right away makes a big difference. For instance, we treat distal radius fractures (once the biggest disabler of hand function) with the latest implants and get your hand moving right away. This greatly reduces the incidence of painful RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy), which used to commonly occur with these fractures.
The relationship between you, your surgeon and your specially certified hand therapist is pivotal. Post-operative combination team visits balance how much function can be restored how fast using your feedback, your surgeon’s expertise, and your certified hand therapist’s knowledge of rehabilitation techniques. We work as a team to get you the very best results in restoring hand function.