Amputation of the upper extremity takes its toll on both the patient and the surgeon. The patient is devastated at the prospect of life with a functional disability and laments the potential loss of the independence we all take for…
Acknowledgment: We would like to acknowledge the contributions of Dean S. Louis, Mark Bagg, and Peter J. L. Jebson. Traumatic injury is the most common cause of an amputated finger or thumb. In other cases, digital amputation may be necessary…
“CONCLUSIONS: Much of what has been written in this chapter may soon be outdated.” James Strickland Acknowledgments: The visionary capacity of Dr. Strickland is mesmerizing. In 1982 in the very first edition of this book, he wrote that microsurgery would…
The first report on a toe-to-hand transfer ever done to a human goes back in time to the 19th century when Nicoladoni described staged, pedicled toe-to-hand transfer over a 4-week period. Davis was the first to combine staged transfer with…
Bone grafts have been used since the first decade of the 20th century to fuse joints and repair defects. The desirability of a living bone graft was recognized by several early investigators who used pedicled fibular grafts for tibial defects…
In contradistinction to a split-thickness or full-thickness skin graft, a flap receives its blood supply independent of the underlying bed on which it is laid. An axial-pattern flap derives its blood supply through an inflow artery and an outflow vein,…
This chapter is dedicated to the memory of Graham Lister, who passed away a few months before this book went to press. Professor Lister was the original author of this chapter in the first edition in 1988 and continued as…
Acknowledgment: We would like to recognize our friend and partner Douglas P. Hanel, MD, who was a coauthor on the sixth edition version of this chapter. His contributions to it, and to hand surgery in general, are innumerable, and we…
No single conceptual development has had as profound an impact on the field of hand surgery as the advent of microsurgical techniques. The ability to microscopically repair blood vessels led to an accelerated phase of discovery and innovation that continues…
Hand Fractures Children are not small adults. Although many similar treatment principles and techniques are utilized, a number of special considerations are required in the treatment of hand fractures in skeletally immature patients. Examination of the injured hand can be…