Wrist surgery options

June 9, 2020 5:49 PM

My sister has a scapholunate ligament tear. She’s seen two surgeons, one who recommended a dorsal capsulodesis and one who recommended a Brunelli 3 ligament tenodesis. She sees a third surgeon next week and may be offered yet another option. If you know about either of these surgeries or other wrist surgeries, can you weigh in on which surgery is considered best, how to make decisions between two or three different procedure options, and any personal experience with wrist surgery and recovery? Thanks!
posted by bananacabana to Health & Fitness (1 answer total)

I am not a doctor and have never had wrist surgery. But here is my thinking about this:

ask the surgeons what they think:
- it may be that success rates for the surgeries are similar, and the surgeries are mostly interchangeable
- it may be that there are tradeoffs: one surgery has a more protracted recovery period but slightly better outcomes
- I would assume that neither surgery was clearly inferior in almost all cases to the other, but it doesn't hurt to ask

look up things on the internet:
- on pubmed, one study from 2006 shows very similar outcomes but on only 30 people, and published 15 years ago
- a more recent update reviews both methods but does not seem to come to any solid conclusion of the superiority of one over the other
- if you want a specific paper downloaded free of charge, memail me

my advice:
- the surgeries seem similar
- the surgeons know their trade and have their reasons for recommending one over the other
- those recommendations may be based on what they were trained on with a particular mentor or what they are used to doing

and my high value advice:
- choose a surgeon well respected by other surgeons/drs (don't ask if surgeon X is well-respected, ask who would YOU go to)
- choose a surgeon that does MANY of that procedure
- choose a surgeon you feel comfortable with and confident in
posted by Maxwell_Smart at 9:07 AM on June 10, 2020 [3 favorites]