EVERYONE knows that hip, knee or shoulder joints can be replaced with prostheses, but perhaps few know that the same thing can be done with the small joints of the hand. At first
invented to intervene in case of rheumatoid arthritis, today the prostheses are used above all for osteoarthritis and serious trauma. «Actually – he says Vincent Joseph Mazzone, director of the Hand Surgery Unit al
Gemelli-Ircss Polyclinic – the novelty in this field does not concern so much the prostheses, but the new surgical techniques. For interphalangeal prostheses, which have to do with the small joints of the fingers, there are
implant techniques that do not require immobilization. In practical terms this means that the patient with the help of a physiotherapist can move his hand immediately after the surgery, which takes place in
loco-regional anesthesia. Unlike the old surgical techniques that involved the section of tendons in order to reach the joints, today, in fact, with the lateral access technique we save the
flexor and extensor tendons of the hand ».
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The most used prostheses are those in silicone and the result is much better than in the past: the patient can even close his fist. “The frontier
more difficult – Mazzone points out – concerns the wrist joint. In this case, through 3D printing techniques and computer models, the goal is to implant customized prostheses. It is working a lot in
this direction, just to be able to replicate the perfect movement of the healthy wrist ».
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