That sharp, searing pain on the thumb side of your wrist can be debilitating. It can make lifting your child, holding a frying pan, or turning a key an excruciating experience. This condition, known as De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis, is a common and intensely frustrating problem that can significantly impact your daily life.
That sharp, searing pain on the thumb side of your wrist can be debilitating. It can make lifting your child, holding a frying pan, or turning a key an excruciating experience. This condition, known as De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis, is a common and intensely frustrating problem that can significantly impact your daily life.
When splints, rest, and injections have failed to provide lasting relief, you don’t have to continue to live in pain. A simple, definitive surgical release can permanently solve the problem. As a Harvard-trained reconstructive plastic surgeon, Dr. Rod French performs this procedure with meticulous care, guiding you from a state of constant pain to a life of renewed, comfortable function.
The cause of De Quervain’s is a simple mechanical issue. Two of the main tendons that move your thumb run through a tight, slippery tunnel on the thumb side of your wrist. In De Quervain’s, this tunnel becomes too narrow and inflamed, and the tendons can no longer glide smoothly. Every time you move your thumb, the tendons painfully rub against the tight opening of the tunnel.
The goal of surgery is equally simple: to surgically “unroof” the tight tunnel, giving the tendons the space they need to glide freely and painlessly.
De Quervain’s release is a highly effective procedure for patients who have not found lasting relief from non-surgical treatments. You are likely a candidate if you experience:
De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis causes debilitating pain that interferes with the most basic and important tasks of your daily life. The surgical release is a quick, highly effective procedure that can often be done in 15-20 minutes. Waiting months or longer in the public system means enduring hundreds of moments of unnecessary, sharp pain every single day.
Choosing private care is a decision to end that pain now. It provides immediate access to a specialist who can perform this definitive procedure without delay, allowing you to get back to lifting your child, your tools, or your tennis racket comfortably and confidently.
Recovery from a De Quervain’s release is typically straightforward and quick.
The surgical procedure itself is very quick, typically taking only 15-20 minutes to perform.
The surgery is performed with local anesthetic, so you will not feel any pain during the procedure. Post-operative pain is generally mild and easily managed with over-the-counter pain medication for a few days.
Surgical release for De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis is one of the most successful and reliable procedures in hand surgery, with a very high rate of complete and permanent pain relief.
This is a very safe procedure. As with any surgery, risks are rare but can include infection, stiffness, or irritation of the small superficial radial nerve that runs nearby.
