Flexor repairs fail loudly by rupturing. Extensor repairs fail quietly, as a lag: the finger bends fine and just stops straightening all the way. A few millimetres of tendon length become permanent degrees. Here’s the weekly check that catches it.
No Dupuytren’s treatment cures the disease. Needle release buys a fast recovery and a shorter reprieve; open surgery costs months and buys longer. And the joint that’s bent decides your result more than the operation does.
Flexor tendon repair rehab sits between two failures: move it too little and the tendon glues to its sheath, too hard and the repair ruptures. The repair is weakest around week 3, which is exactly when the hand starts feeling fine. Here’s why every rule exists.
CRPS is the body’s injury response failing to switch off: burning pain out of proportion to the injury, colour and temperature changes, swelling, and fast-increasing stiffness. It’s real, most people improve, and the hand has to keep moving while it hurts.
A stiff hand after a cast or surgery is normal, but stiffness has a clock. Early stiffness is wet cement, old stiffness is set concrete. Here’s how to tell whether the block is joint, tendon or the small muscles inside your hand, and why time at end range beats pulling harder.
Trapeziectomy removes the arthritic bone at the thumb base, and the pain relief is reliable. Strength is the slow half: pinch often measures worse at 3 months than before surgery, which is normal. The honest verdict sits at month 9 to 12.
Carpal tunnel release stops the night tingling within days, then people panic at week 4 when the palm hurts and the grip is gone. Pillar pain, scar sensitivity and a 3 to 6 month grip timeline are all normal. Here’s the honest week-by-week.