Hand & wrist surgery

Your hands and wrists provide an impressive amount of movement and function. Just one hand alone contains 27 bones, as well as numerous muscles, nerves, tendons and ligaments.

Given the complex structure of your hands and wrists, it’s not surprising that they are fairly susceptible to a range of problems, from injury to disease.

Some of the common reasons people choose to visit with our Consultant Hand and Wrist Surgeons include:

• Pain – this could be the result of injury or disease,
• Weakness or numbness in the fingers -
• A deformity in a finger – for example, one or more of your fingers may curl unnaturally over time, eventually becoming locked in a bent position.
• Pain in the base of thumb,
• A problem developing from a previous fracture,
• A new lump appearing on a hand or wrist.

There are a number of causes for hand and wrist problems, including:

• Osteoarthritis – Can affect the wrist, fingers or thumb. As the disease progresses, the pain and/or stiffness tends to become worse.
• Carpal tunnel syndrome – Typical symptoms include weakness, a tingling sensation and sometimes pain in the wrist and hand.Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common problem, caused by one of three main nerves in your arm (the median nerve) becoming trapped and pinched as it passes through the wrist.
• Ganglion cyst - A small fluid-filled lump in a hand or wrist. Often resolves itself naturally, but can be drained if it causes pain or discomfort.
• Trigger Finger – Inflammation in a tendon causes a finger to curl into a ‘trigger finger’ position.
• Dupuytren’s Contracture (also known as Dupuytren’s disease) – Nodules form as a result of a thickening of the layer that sits just under the skin. These nodules may be painful. Over time, the thickening causes the fingers to curl and fix in a bent position.

Whatever symptoms you are experiencing in your hand or wrist, our experienced Hand and Wrist Surgeons will help get you out of pain and back to better function in your hand and wrist. Why not book your private consultation now?

Treatment for hand and wrist conditions may include:

• Splinting
• Physiotherapy/hand therapy
• Pain relief medication
• Steroid injection
• Surgery

Surgery may be carried out to:

• Repair damage to a ligament or tendon
• Fuse two joints together
• Replace a joint
• Remove damaged or diseased tissue from the hand

Some wrist surgery can be done using keyhole surgery (wrist arthroscopy). Using only very small incisions (cuts) it provides reduced pain, less visible scarring, and recovery may be faster. Other conditions may require open surgery.

One of the most important factors in recovering well from any hand and wrist condition is having expert support throughout.

Here at The Meriden Hospital, our experienced Physiotherapy team will work closely with you, helping you safely regain function and movement in your hand and wrist.

They will structure a personalised rehabilitation programme just for you, to help improve your strength, range of movement and flexibility, at the pace that is best for you.

When you first meet with your Consultant, they will talk with you about your symptoms and when they started. They will discuss your medical history and ask you some questions to help clarify possible causes of your symptoms. These may be:

• Have your symptoms have been getting progressively worse over time?
• If you have pain, what is it like? (For example, is it sharp or dull; constant or sporadic?)
• Is the pain in one specific place or is it spreading more generally around the hand or wrist?
• Was there was an obvious trigger for the problem, such as a fall onto an outstretched hand?
• Are there any obvious movements or actions that cause your symptoms to get worse?

Once they have talked with you, they will carry out a physical examination of your hand and wrist, moving them around into various positions and asking you to perform some simple movements. This helps them to assess the extent of the problem.

Additional tests may be needed to assist with diagnosis. This will often be an X-ray of your hand and wrist to confirm or exclude any abnormality in the bones.

Additional scans like MRI and ultrasound can sometimes also be helpful, particularly when assessing problems involving the tendons, ligaments, muscles or nerves. We have comprehensive diagnostic capabilities and any of these scans can easily be arranged for you on-site should you require them.

The medical history, physical examination and the results of any diagnostic tests are used by your Consultant to help them make a diagnosis.

Once they know the exact cause of your symptoms, they will discuss any suitable treatment options with you.

When you choose to visit us for your Hand and Wrist treatment, you’ll benefit from:

• Rapid access to an expert – A problem in a hand or wrist can have a significant impact on your quality of life. We can arrange for you to see one of the top Hand and Wrist Consultants in the region quickly, so that you can be on the road to recovery sooner.
• Patient Satisfaction – In an independent survey, 98.2% of people we treated said they were likely or highly likely to recommend us to their friends and family. Our focus is on making your time with us as comfortable, efficient and helpful as possible, getting you out of pain and back to better function as soon as possible.
• Convenient appointments – Our Hand and Wrist Consultants offer appointments throughout the week. We’ll help you schedule an appointment that’s most convenient to you.
• Free* Parking – Parking should be the least of your worries when attending hospital. Our on-site car park has 80 spaces, so you won’t have to worry about where to park. *You will need to register your car at Reception when you first arrive to benefit from free parking.

If you have pain, stiffness, weakness or numbness in a hand or wrist, expert medical assessment and advice can be invaluable.

Our experienced Hand and Wrist Consultants will thoroughly investigate your symptoms, outline all treatment options for you and arrange any further scans or surgery if required.

Why not get in touch with us today to book your private appointment?