The Journal of hand surgery
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Displaced olecranon fractures are often amenable to treatment with open reduction and tension-band wiring. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships of the tips of K-wires used in a tension-band construct to volar neurovascular structures in the proximal forearm and the proximal radioulnar joint. ⋯ This anatomic study was done to diminish the chance of complications resulting from K-wire placement during tension-band wiring for olecranon fractures.
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The cause of snapping in trigger finger is not clearly understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of stiffness of the first annular pulley on snapping in trigger finger patients with sonoelastography, a new technique for quantitative assessment of the stiffness of soft tissues. ⋯ Increased stiffness and thickening of the A1 pulley are considered to be causes for snapping in trigger finger, and corticosteroid injection can alleviate snapping by changing these 2 features.
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This investigation tested the null hypothesis that psychological factors have no effect on patient satisfaction in a hand and upper limb practice. ⋯ In this study, the provider's sense that the patient was disproportionately uneasy with his or her symptoms was the only significant predictor of patient satisfaction, and this accounted for a small percentage of the variance in responses to these items. Patient satisfaction is complex, and the divide between medical advice and a patient's expectations are not easily reduced to one or more disease-specific or patient-specific factors.
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The diagnosis and management of complex regional pain syndrome is often challenging. Early diagnosis and intervention improve outcomes in most patients; however, some patients will progress regardless of intervention. Multidisciplinary management facilitates care in complex cases. ⋯ Multimodal treatment with hand therapy, sympatholytic drugs, and stress loading may be augmented with anesthesia blocks. If the dystrophic symptoms are controllable by medications and a nociceptive focus or nerve derangement is correctable, surgery is an appropriate alternative. Chronic sequelae of contracture may also be addressed surgically in patients with controllable sympathetically maintained pain.
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Unstable dorsal fracture-dislocations of the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint are complex injuries that are difficult to treat and usually require operative fixation. There are a number of surgical techniques for treating these injuries but none has emerged as superior. The purposes of this study were to describe a simple percutaneous technique to treat unstable dorsal fracture-dislocations of the PIP joint and to report short-term postoperative results. ⋯ This percutaneous technique reliably restored stability to the PIP joint, allowed for concentric reduction of the joint, and produced excellent radiographic and clinical outcomes. The postoperative management course with this technique is critical to the outcome.