It’s Not Too Late to Correct an Old Injury. 

Living with the lasting effects of a traumatic injury – like chronic pain, stiffness, or a hand that no longer looks or works the way it used to – can be a source of daily frustration. We offer advanced reconstructive surgery to correct post-traumatic deformities, improve your hand’s function, and reduce your pain. 

Moving Forward After an Injury Has Healed Incorrectly. 

When you suffer a serious hand or wrist injury, you hope for a complete recovery. But sometimes, even after the initial healing is done, you’re left with persistent problems. If your hand “just hasn’t been right” since your accident, you may be dealing with a post-traumatic deformity. Fortunately, this does not have to be a permanent condition. 

Understanding the Lingering Problem 

Malunion 

• The most common post-traumatic deformity is a fracture malunion. This occurs when a fractured (broken) bone heals in an incorrect position – it may be angled, rotated, or shortened. A malunion can cause the hand or wrist to look crooked, but more importantly, it disrupts the alignment of the joints and the delicate balance of forces in the tendons which can lead to pain, stiffness, and weakness. 

Post-Traumatic Arthritis & Instability 

• When a joint is no longer aligned correctly due to a malunion or a ligament injury that never properly healed, the cartilage wears down unevenly. This leads to an early onset of post-traumatic arthritis, causing chronic pain, swelling, and a progressive loss of motion. 

Rebuilding Your Hand for Better Function 

Corrective Osteotomy (Strategic Fracture Repair)

• To fix a malunion, a procedure called a Corrective Osteotomy is performed. This is essentially a chance to “re-do” the healing process correctly. Dr. French carefully and precisely re-breaks the bone in a controlled surgical setting. He then restores the bone’s normal alignment and uses a specialized plate and screws to hold it securely in the correct position while it heals. 

Bone Grafting

• Bone Grafting is often a critical part of a corrective osteotomy. When a bone is straightened, it can sometimes leave a gap. A bone graft, which can be taken from your own wrist or from a donor source, is used to fill this gap. This provides a structural scaffold that helps stimulate and support the bone’s healing in its new, corrected alignment. 

Soft Tissue Reconstruction

• Correcting the bone is only part of the solution. After an old injury, the surrounding soft tissues, like ligaments and tendons, have often adapted to the incorrect bone position. A complete reconstruction may also involve procedures to release tight scar tissue or reconstruct damaged ligaments to restore balance and improve the hand’s overall function. 

The Complexity of Revision Surgery 

Corrective surgery on a bone that has already healed is often far more complex and technically demanding than the initial injury repair. It requires navigating through scar tissue and meticulously rebuilding the hand’s anatomy. As a Harvard-trained reconstructive plastic surgeon and microsurgeon, Dr. French has the specialized skill set required to manage both the bone and the delicate soft tissues to handle these challenging revision cases.