Hand & Upper Extremity Overview
Your hands are the privileged messengers of your mind, allowing you to express your thoughts, emotions, and ideas. Your wrists, elbows, and shoulders make it possible for you to position your hands in space in an optimal manner to interact with your environment. UAB Orthopaedics offers comprehensive, state-of-the-art care for disorders affecting the upper extremities to ensure they remain healthy and functional.
Conditions Treated
UAB physicians skilled in treating hands and upper extremities perform a variety of services and procedures for many conditions, including:
UAB physicians skilled in treating hands and upper extremities perform a variety of services and procedures for many conditions, including:
Hand, Wrist and Elbow
- Congenital disorders
- Sports related injuries, including
- wrist and scaphoid fractures
- wrist ligament injuries
- flexor and extensor tendon disruption
- Arthroscopy (viewing the joint with a special camera) and minimally invasive surgery
- Vascularized bone grafting that increases blood flow to the bone graft
- Scapholunate ligament repair and reconstruction using tendon and ligament transfers
- Acute traumatic injuries, including
- fractures
- ligament disruptions
- tendon, artery, and nerve lacerations
- Complex deformities and disorders following trauma, especially nonunions (bones that haven’t healed), malunions (bones that have healed incorrectly), and joint instability
- Arthritis and joint replacement
- Nerve compression syndromes (such as carpal tunnel syndrome and capital tunnel syndrome)
- Brachial plexus disorders in adults
- Tumors and masses in the upper extremity
- Avascular necrosis (loss of blood supply to a bone) involving the wrist (Kienbock’s Disease)
- Dupuytren’s disease and joint stiffness
- Biceps and triceps tendon rupture at the elbow
- Soft-tissue defects requiring flap coverage
- Paralytic and spastic disorders
Shoulder
- Sports related injuries, including
- shoulder separations
- dislocations
- joint instability
- labral and rotator cuff tears
- Rotator cuff disorders, including
- impingement/bursitis
- partial thickness tears
- full thickness tears
- massive rotator cuff tears
- Proximal biceps tendon rupture and tendonitis
- Arthritis and shoulder replacement surgery
- Primary and revision total shoulder replacements
- Reverse total shoulder replacement for shoulders with irreparable rotator cuff tears
- Avascular necrosis (loss of blood supply to a bone) of the humeral head
- Acute traumatic injuries, including humeral and clavicle fractures and tendon injuries
- Post-traumatic shoulder fracture malunions (bones that have healed incorrectly), nonunions (bones that haven’t healed), and arthritis
Services Provided
- Pediatric hand therapy
- Custom static and dynamic splint fabrication
- Functional capacity evaluations and impairment ratings
- Compression therapy and manual edema massage
- Desensitization and sensory re-education
- Functional activity and hand writing techniques
- Joint protection instruction/energy conservation instruction
- Manual therapy and exercises
- Modalities
- Nutrition instruction
- Orthotic design, selection, fitting, fabrication, and training
- Scar management
- Work conditioning and work hardening
- Wound care
- Ergonomic and activity modification in home, work, school, or leisure
Diagnostics
- Digital X-ray
- Fluoroscopy
- On site MRI, CT, and ultrasound
- Developmental assessment of congenital differences
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