During my hand fellowship I once asked my program director Al Hess MD why he had become a hand surgeon after completing his training in orthopaedic surgery. His answer was “In the other stuff I had become so perfect that it was boring”. Wrist surgery is a prime example why hand surgery is never boring, […]
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome is undoubtedly the most frequent form of peripheral nerve entrapment/compression not only in our Caribbean hand surgery clinic at Trinidad Institute of Plastic Surgery. The cause of carpal tunnel syndrome is compression of the median nerve at the wrist, where it runs through the carpal canal (carpal tunnel) with nine tendons […]
Scaphoid Fracture, Scaphoid Fracture Treatment
The scaphoid fracture was described by the American hand surgeon Barton as a fracture of an “awkward but important little bone”. Despite all the progress in hand surgery in the past few decades, little has changed: the scaphoid fracture remains the fracture of an “awkward but important little bone”, in our Caribbean hand surgery clinic […]
Tendon Problems in the Fingers and Hand – Trigger Finger, Trigger Thumb and de Quervain’s Disease
The most common variations of tenovaginitis (tendon sheath inflammation) in our Caribbean hand surgery clinic at Trinidad Institute of Plastic Surgery are trigger finger and de Quervain’s disease. They share the feature of compression of the affected tendon in a rigid tunnel. In the case of trigger finger or trigger thumb compression occurs at the […]
Electrical Injuries – The “Great Masquerader” in Burn Surgery
Electrical injuries comprise only a small fraction of burn injuries admitted to specialized centers. High voltage injuries may not be survivable. The flow of current through the body interferes with tissues conducting electricity on their own (nerves, heart) and expends its energy on tissues with highest resistance, the bones, causing high temperature damage from the […]