Regain your grip on life: Dudley Creek Health
Consider two quotes from undisputed visionaries, innovators, and influencers. One a heavy-weight of the High Renaissance, the other a tech billionaire turned philanthropist.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” — Leonardo da Vinci.
“The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it.” — Bill Gates
Fuse these quotes, and you have the blue-prints for cutting-edge arthritis solutions from Dudley Creek Health (DCH). Christchurch-based, and community-minded, this multidisciplinary team is patient-focused, delivering bespoke solutions for health needs.
One area of expertise is hands, providing proven, simple yet sophisticated solutions for painful finger and thumb base arthritis. Arthritis is described as a debilitating, and often disfiguring joint condition that can cause pain, swelling, increasing stiffness, deformity, and loss of hand function.
“We take for granted our normal hand function and its ability to be positioned and manipulated effortlessly to execute all our routine activities,” say orthopaedic surgeons at DCH.
“Hands help us prepare and deliver food to our mouths, write, type, use a mouse and computer all day, grip sports equipment, and hold a pint glass at the pub. “Arthritis of the hand can make even mundane tasks agonisingly painful, and often, impossible.” When non-operative treatment strategies are no longer effective, consider surgery, they say, such as replacing the affected joints or joint fusion (surgically stiffening a joint to provide a painless, yet rigid joint that allows for pain free hand function).
Options include:
Arthritis of end joint of finger, in early to moderate arthritis: Symptom relief, improved function and appearance of the end finger knuckle mucus-cyst, with minimally invasive day-case bone-spur removal and cyst excision.
Arthritis of an end-joint of finger and knuckle-joint: Once progressed, a minimally invasive fusion technique with use of specialised equipment allow surgeons to provide a painless stiff joint with significantly improved hand function and near normal appearance of the finger.
Arthritis of the knuckle-joint of the finger: Inserting a new generation silicone finger joint implant provides the best functional outcome for painful destroyed knuckle joints, including the index finger, which is critical to pinch and precision grip function of the hand.
Basal thumb joint arthritis: A modular joint replacement, featuring a metal stem, neck, and a cup, helps regain opposable thumb function when implanted into prepared bones at base of thumb. Clinical evidence shows thumb joint replacement have a predicted durability of beyond 8 years in 95% of patients. Thumb joint replacement accounts for over 75% of surgery provided for thumb base arthritis in parts of Europe.
Such procedures are a specialty at DCH, a fully accredited and licensed day-stay surgery and treatment centre with allied hand therapy services that play a critical role in rehabilitating patients after surgery. Patients experience quick recovery and regain confidence in everyday activities after finger and thumb base surgery.
One happy client says, “Again, many thanks for all your expertise and care. The results of my thumb surgery have exceeded all my expectations.”
“At DCH, we can enhance your quality of life through personalised care and cutting-edge technology that restores function and appearance, and alleviates pain, allowing you to grasp, grip, and live life without limit,” say its team of orthopaedic surgeons.
References: www.gezonbelgie.be, www.belgiqueenbonnesonte.be, The proximal interphalangeal joint: arthritis and deformity EOR | volume 4 | June 2019, DOI: 10.1302/2058-5241.4.180042, www.efortopenreviews.org
