Hand and Upper Extremity Specialist
a healing metacarpal fracture
My patients often ask, “Is my fracture healing?”. How does your doctor decide whether your fracture is healed or not? This article will help you learn how fracture healing takes place and how to tell if your fractured bone is healed.
[Read more…] about How Do I Know If My Broken Bone is Healed?
Is it called the pinkie finger or the little finger? Many patients want to use the right technical terms when talking with their doctor, and this can improve the efficiency of your office visit. Here I’ll show you how to accurately discuss where your hand problem is by teaching you some hand surface anatomy.
[Read more…] about Hand Surface Anatomy – Language of Hand and Arm Surgery Series
I’ve just added a new page on Trigger Thumb in Children to my list of Patient Education links on the left side of the page of my site.
Many patients tell me, “Doc, I need my hands!” I’m glad they feel this way, because hands are my specialty and my passion.
The term or job description “hand surgeon” means much more than just “a doctor who does surgery on hands”.
Putting patients in splints after surgery for hand and arm problems is common – I recommend splinting for almost all my patients after surgery – but not after carpal tunnel release!
Tylenol (active generic ingredient, acetaminophen) is a drug often recommended by health care providers to treat arthritis pain. Like other anti-inflammatory medicines, it has a role in the non-surgical treatment of hand and arm pain. In fact, some research shows that if you have arthritis pain, you should try acetaminophen first, before trying other medicines, like ibuprofen and naproxen.
You may wonder what makes the Tylenol Arthritis product different than regular Tylenol.
“my finger doesn’t work”“my finger is bent”“my finger won’t straighten”“my finger is drooped” These are several of the most common things I hear when patients come in with a mallet finger. A mallet finger is the name for a ruptured (torn) tendon at the tip of the finger. A tendon rupture is where a tendon […]
The video below shows a patient’s thumb moving back and forth. As you’ll see, most of the range of motion is at the MP (metacarpophalangeal) joint. This is abnormal – in a normal thumb, the majority of the motion is through the CMC (carpometacarpal joint, at the base of the thumb). When the CMC joint […]
Bones in children are different from bones in adults. They break differently and they respond differently to injury. Some fractures occur both in adults and kids – some fractures occur only in children. Forearm fractures occur in both, with some important differences. This article will cover some of the basics of forearm fractures in kids. […]
The most common tumor in the finger is a ganglion cyst. A ganglion cyst is simply a fluid-filled sac. It can be visible from the outside or buried deep underneath the skin. Sometimes it causes symptoms like soreness and pain; other times patients have no idea it’s there. What is a mucous cyst? Ganglion cysts […]
