Hand & wrist surgery in Blackburn

Considering the frequency with which we use our hands, it’s understandable that any pain experienced in your hands and wrists can quickly become wearing.

If you’re an active person, that pain might be preventing you from playing your favourite sport. Even simple tasks like pouring a cup of tea can suddenly become gruelling when coupled with debilitating pain and discomfort.

If you’ve been dealing with pain in your hands or wrists, this may be all too familiar for you. When it’s reached the point where you want to seek medical advice, you won’t want to wait for answers.

Fortunately, our dedicated Hand and Wrist consultants at The Beardwood can see you for an examination promptly, providing an accurate diagnosis and starting you on a personalised treatment plan without any further delay.

Considering the fact that your hand consists of 27 bones, 34 muscles, and 100 tendons and ligaments, it’s no surprise that issues can easily arise with such intricate anatomy.

Pain in your hands and wrists can be common, especially as we start to get older and the natural wear and tear of joints becomes more apparent. Most of the patients seen by our consultants have presented with pain in the hand or wrist, but there may be other reasons to seek a consultation.

Numbness and/or pins & needles alongside a nerve-type pain may need investigating. Equally, deformities such as fingers being bent over or curled up may need to be explored.

Conditions that often cause these symptoms include:

• Osteoarthritis – affecting the wrist, fingers and thumb, with pain slowly getting worse over time
• Carpal tunnel syndrome – where the median nerve (one of three main nerves in your hands and arms) gets pinched or compressed, leading to a tingling sensation, weakness, and sometimes pain
• Ganglion – A build-up of fluid around your hand or wrist, causing swelling
• Trigger Finger – where a tendon gets stuck in a position due to inflammation of the tendon

A huge benefit to treatment at The Beardwood is the recent introduction of One Stop Hand Surgery. This service is available to those who may have a ganglion, trigger finger, carpal tunnel syndrome or Dupuytren’s disease (a thickening of the layer that sits just under the skin).

With free video consultation available to help determine your suitability, this service enables you to get an assessment and operation on the very same day, led by our very own European Board-Certified Hand surgeon, Mr Fizan Younis.

Your consultant will first take a medical history, and ask all about your symptoms. They will likely ask you:

• What symptoms have you been experiencing?
• How long have these symptoms lasted?
• Have they become progressively worse over time?
• What type of pain is it? Pain when moving or nerve pain?
• Is the pain localised or does it spread up through your arm?

They will also perform a clinical examination of the affected area, and ask you to perform some simple tasks to demonstrate your symptoms.

If appropriate, further investigations can then be carried out to confirm your diagnosis. Generally, our consultants start out with an x-ray to get an idea of the bony structure of the hand and wrist. This means the bony structures can be easily excluded if there are no abnormalities, instead focusing on the soft structures, such as the tendons, ligaments, muscles and nerves.

An ultrasound may be useful for looking at structures close to the skin, and an MRI for deeper structures, and these further scans can be done at our on-site Imaging unit.

A definitive treatment plan can then be introduced, and may include steroid injections, physiotherapy, or if necessary, an operation.

If the answer is not clear-cut, and the problem is coming from within a joint, your consultant will likely want to perform an arthroscopy (a form of keyhole surgery). This involves passing a thin, flexible tube with a tiny camera and light attached to it through a small cut in your wrist, which transmits a live feed to a screen, allowing your consultant to see inside the joint. This is a day case procedure with a rapid recovery time.

Surgery is not always necessary, so we tend to take a conservative approach to treatment, where possible. For example, severe sprains can take 12-18 months to fully recover. Rather than operating in this instance, our expert physiotherapy team would work closely with you, devising a personalised rehabilitation programme to help maintain use of your hand. This keeps your strength and range of movement optimised during this recovery period.

Hand Therapy is a specialised form of physiotherapy available at The Beardwood, which is delivered by a combination of physiotherapists and hand therapists from an occupational health background. If appropriate for your needs, this can be organised through your consultant.

By choosing to have your treatment with us at The Beardwood, you’ll be able to take advantage of all these benefits:

• Assessments ASAP – When your quality of life has been affected by the amount of pain your hands or wrists are causing, you’ll want a diagnosis quickly and without delay. By seeing patients rapidly, our consultants can get you started on the right course of treatment as soon as possible.
• One Stop Hand Surgery – Offering the potential for an assessment and operation on the very same day, this ground-breaking service allows conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome, ganglions, and trigger finger to be treated without delay.
• Patient Satisfaction – 98.1% of other patients in 2019 said they would happily recommend the Beardwood Hospital to friends and family in an independent report, and we’re confident that you’ll agree. 98.6% also said that the quality of care here at Beardwood Hospital was either ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’. We aim to make your stay with us as comfortable as possible, and these results highlight our continued efforts to ensure this is achieved.
• Personalised care – We believe in a bespoke approach to treatment, tailoring each experience to our patients’ needs and whatever may be best for you.
• Remote Consultation – All our consultants have remote access to scans, and this has made the world of difference for both patients and consultants alike. If your consultant is working at one of our other sites and needs to see your latest scan, you won’t have to wait for an on-site consultation or clinic, reducing wait times and ensuring you can be contacted for an ad hoc appointment to get advice at any point through your treatment plan.
• A Multidisciplinary Approach – Our teams at The Beardwood work in tandem with each other to provide you with the best possible care from start to finish. Working closely with physiotherapists, as well as a dedicated team of radiographers, anaesthetists, and nurses, you have support from medical professionals every step of the way during your treatment.
• Convenient appointments – With appointments available between 8am and 8pm Monday-Sunday, you are sure to find an appointment slot that suits your needs and availability.
• Free Parking – We know that parking should be the least of your worries when attending hospital, so to make life easier our car park is free of charge. In order to validate your parking, all you need to do is register your details with us at reception when you arrive.

If you have been suffering from significant hand and/or wrist pain, why not get in touch with our reception team today to book a consultation? Our consultants can organise the necessary diagnostic tests to investigate your symptoms, and outline all treatment options for you promptly, arranging any further scans or surgery if required.

For peace of mind and expert care, book an appointment online now.