You have lived with the chronic, grinding pain for long enough. When severe arthritis has destroyed your wrist joint, every movement can be excruciating, and the ability to perform even simple tasks like opening a door or carrying groceries can be lost. When you’ve reached a point where non-surgical treatments no longer offer relief, and the pain is constant, it’s time for a definitive solution.
You have lived with the chronic, grinding pain for long enough. When severe arthritis has destroyed your wrist joint, every movement can be excruciating, and the ability to perform even simple tasks like opening a door or carrying groceries can be lost. When you’ve reached a point where non-surgical treatments no longer offer relief, and the pain is constant, it’s time for a definitive solution.
Wrist Salvage Surgery is a category of advanced reconstructive procedures designed to do one thing: eliminate the source of your pain and provide you with a strong, stable, and reliable wrist. As a Harvard-trained specialist in complex hand and wrist reconstruction, Dr. Rod French has the expertise to determine and perform the right salvage procedure to finally end your suffering and restore your quality of life.
When a wrist joint is destroyed by end-stage arthritis, the smooth cartilage that allows the bones to glide is completely gone. The result is a painful, “bone-on-bone” grinding with any movement or weight-bearing. Wrist salvage surgery is a powerful and reliable solution that works by eliminating this painful grinding.
The goal is to “salvage” the wrist from a state of constant pain and create a stable, comfortable foundation for you to use your hand without a total wrist fusion. This is achieved by either removing the arthritic bones or permanently fusing them together so they can no longer grind against each other. The primary goal of all salvage procedures is profound and lasting pain relief while saving some wrist motion.
Wrist salvage surgery is a major reconstructive option for patients with severe, debilitating wrist arthritis. You may be a candidate if you:
End-stage wrist arthritis is a condition of daily, unrelenting suffering. Every day you are forced to wait for surgery is another day filled with debilitating pain and limitations. The wait for a major reconstructive procedure like a wrist salvage procedure in the public system can be exceptionally long, prolonging your agony and preventing you from moving forward with your life.
Choosing private care is a decision to end your suffering now. It provides immediate access to a specialist who can perform this life-changing procedure without the agonizing wait. It is a direct path to the profound pain relief you need to reclaim your life.
Recovery from wrist salvage surgery is a significant undertaking focused on achieving a solid, healed reconstruction.
While you will not be able to bend your wrist up and down, you will still be able to rotate your forearm (turn your palm up and down) and will have full use of your fingers and thumb. While the procedure sounds like it will be limiting, it is surprisingly functional because the 360-degree range of motion in the shoulder can position the wrist where it needs to be for activities. Most patients adapt extremely well and are thrilled to have a strong, stable, and, most importantly, pain-free wrist.
It’s a type of salvage surgery where the surgeon removes the three small bones in the first row of your wrist (the scaphoid, lunate, and triquetrum). This creates a new, motion-preserving joint. It is an excellent option for certain patterns of wrist arthritis. It has the fewest potential complications of the three options and the quickest recovery.
Recovery can be extensive. It requires a significant period of casting (often 2 months or more for fusions and partial fusions) to ensure the bones heal properly, followed by several months of therapy to maximize function and strength.
As with any major surgery, risks can include infection, nerve or tendon irritation, and hardware issues. The most significant risk is a nonunion (failure of the bones to fuse), which is why strict adherence to the post-operative protocol and quitting smoking are so important.
