Tendon, Nerve and Ligament Injuries
Tendons, Nerves and Ligaments are the most commonly injured “soft tissues” within the hand that require repair. The key factor that will affect what treatment or surgery is best for your condition will be the length of time that has passed since the injury. Most of these soft tissue injuries can be repaired as part of a daycase procedure meaning you can go home the same day.
Tendon Injuries
Tendon connect muscles to bones and allows us to bend and straighten our fingers, thumbs and wrists. Tendons can be accidentally cut as part of an open injury like a knife wound or can sustained closed injuries. You will know if you’re likely to have injured your tendons if you can’t bend or straighten that part of your hand OR it is painful when you do it. Depending upon the time since injury injured tendons can be directly repaired or require more complex techniques to restore function to your hand such as tendon grafts or tendon transfers.
Nerve Injuries
Nerves are responsible for sending providing sensation to the hand as well as carrying signals from the brain to the muscles which move the hand. Nerve injuries in the hand can produce troublesome numbness, weakness or a lack of coordination. Long term a nerve injury can produce a painful neuroma which is small lump under the skin which is exquisitely tender and can give sensations of hypersensitivity and “electric shocks”. Nerve injuries and neuromas can be treated surgically with various techniques including nerve grafts and nerve transfers.
Ligament Injuries
Ligaments join bone to bone and are the main stabilising structures of our joints. They are commonly injured by fingers and wrists being powerfully twisted or bent “the wrong way”.
Some injuries will heal well with simple splinting, but many require more invasive treatment. Failure of ligaments to heal properly will cause chronic instability in joints which in turn can lead to joint pain, arthritis and loss of function. If you are concerned that you may have significantly injured a hand ligament, we will be happy to assess you and recommend treatment.
Reach out to Northland Plastic Surgery by phone, email or book in an assessment via Zoom.