Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Welcome

Welcome to the homepage of the Swedish National Center for Reconstructive Hand Surgery in Tetraplegia. This homepage provides information about current strategies to improve hand and upper extremity function by surgery and postoperative training. With more than thirty years of history and more than 700 operations in the field of reconstructive hand surgery in tetraplegia our unit has built up a substantial expertise to assess and treat paralyzed arm and hand muscles after spinal cord injuries.

The foundation for this service is the tetraplegic individual’s desire to get a better control of her/his hand in daily activities. Although all persons living with tetraplegia present different functional losses, there are several common features, which allows the experienced examiner to determine whether surgery and post-surgery training can meet the needs of the patient. In fact, the majority of persons with tetraplegia can benefit from surgical reconstruction.

The operations may range from simple correction of the thumb position to major multi-stages operations using different combinations of muscle-tendon transfers. We would like to emphasize that it is only the person living with tetraplegia who knows what function and ability he or she really prioritizes. In other words, this homepage aims at serving the tetraplegic individual and her/his relatives and assistants with updated information as how to proceed to get connection with experts in the field of reconstruction of hand function. Who to connect with? Who to ask the questions? Where to be assessed? Where to get surgery? All these issues are crucial to the tetraplegic individual and we are trying to help you out.

Feel free to address your questions to our service center that will be found under contact info.