Disorders of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand (“upper-extremity”) are surprisingly common. The hand is formed in a very precise way where even a seemingly innocuous problem can upset the delicate biomechanical balance necessary for coordinated digital manipulation. These problems may develop from injury, disease or repetitive motion. Without appropriate treatment, a mild disorder of the upper-extremity may lead to functional impairment, chronic pain and occasionally unsightly deformities.
The hand and upper-extremity surgeons at NorthShore University HealthSystem pledge to provide effective and personalized care to every patient who enters our doors. As part of the hand and upper-extremity program at NorthShore University HealthSystem, we strive for clinical excellence using a multidisciplinary, patient-oriented approach to care. When appropriate and absolutely necessary, our team utilizes a broad range of interventions, from complex microsurgery to new and innovative minimally invasive treatments. Our team’s success is based on an in-depth understanding of problems pertaining to the entire Upper-Extremity, combined with an appreciation of each patients functional requirements and needs while always maintaining open avenues of communication. Surgery, when required, is often performed in an outpatient setting, minimizing discomfort and inconvenience. These extensive measures are taken to provide the best possible experience for all of our patients.
Traumatic injuries are treated in an efficient manner recognizing the need for functional return in a timely fashion. Our new surgery center is equipped with state of the art contemporary technology for treating individuals with fractures, dislocations, and traumatic injuries to tendons, nerves or vessels. We have performed numerous digital replantations with success in almost every case.
Arthritis of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hands presents with an array of symptoms, often resulting in significant functional limitations. Patient satisfaction is ensured through our multidisciplinary approach utilizing highly trained individuals from nurse clinicians to hand therapists. Being part of a tertiary care facility as well as on faculty at a major national academic center, we have extensive experience treating both common as well as complicated upper-extremity problems, where an in-depth knowledge is required.
Today, repetitive strain injuries are especially prevalent in the workplace. Individuals are treated using a well thought out, pragmatic, and efficient plan, in an empathic environment, while maintaining insight into rehabilitation and re-education. Lines of communication are always open minimizing aggravation. Each patient is treated as an individual with his or her health status being our prime concern.
All hand surgeons on staff have extensive training in hand surgery especially in minimally invasive techniques for treating many disorders such as endoscopic carpal tunnel release and arthroscopic procedures of the wrist, elbow and shoulder, resulting in quicker recovery and less pain.
These hand surgeons are board certified with the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and have attained higher qualification in hand surgery through the completion of a fellowship in hand and upper-extremity surgery followed by the successful acquisition of a certificate in hand surgery.
Robert Merle D’Aubergine once wrote with reference to the hand: "What other organ can be the site of so many, such specific, and such minute local problems? And yet no other is so dependent on the rest of the body. This remarkable precision tool is, with the eyes, our chief instrument of information. It’s participation in the expression of our thoughts, written and spoken, is such that injury to, or loss of, that organ is bound to have severe psychological repercussions."
This is what we base our philosophy on at NorthShore University HealthSystem Section of Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery.