UCLA Health: Comprehensive Hand and Wrist Care

Your hands and wrists are integral to your daily life. When you experience pain or limited function, seeking specialized care is essential. At UCLA Health, you'll find a dedicated team of experts committed to providing comprehensive and personalized treatment for a wide range of hand and wrist conditions.

Why Choose UCLA Health for Hand and Wrist Care?

UCLA Health stands out for its expertise, comprehensive approach, coordinated care, and commitment to innovation. Patients choose UCLA Health because they receive individualized attention, thorough evaluations, and collaborative treatment plans tailored to their specific needs.

Expertise and Specialization

UCLA Health's hand surgeons possess advanced fellowship training and extensive experience in treating the intricate structures of the hand and wrist. Their expertise encompasses both common and complex conditions, ensuring that patients receive the most appropriate and effective care. The team also includes physicians focused exclusively on shoulder and elbow issues, providing a comprehensive approach to upper extremity care.

Comprehensive and Tailored Approach

UCLA Health offers a broad spectrum of treatments, ranging from specialized hand therapy and injections to surgical interventions. This comprehensive approach allows for the exploration of non-surgical options to potentially delay or avoid the need for surgery. When surgery is necessary, the team tailors the procedure to the patient's unique needs, leveraging their extensive experience to achieve excellent outcomes, even in rare or difficult-to-treat cases.

Coordinated Care for Complex Conditions

UCLA Health emphasizes coordinated care, particularly for complex cases. The process begins with a hand surgeon who takes the time to thoroughly understand the patient's needs. When additional expertise is required, the team collaborates with radiologists, rheumatologists, neurologists, and plastic and reconstructive surgeons. For pediatric patients, pediatricians are also involved. This multidisciplinary approach ensures that patients receive comprehensive evaluations and treatment plans, often with the convenience of seeing multiple specialists in a single visit.

Rehabilitation and Recovery

UCLA Health recognizes the importance of rehabilitation in achieving optimal outcomes. Patients benefit from the guidance of certified hand therapists, who are typically occupational or physical therapists with specialized training in hand, wrist, and arm rehabilitation. The rehabilitation process may include guided exercises, splinting, and techniques to alleviate pain and restore natural movement.

Innovation and Research

UCLA Health is at the forefront of innovation in hand and wrist care. Through ongoing research, experts are developing new treatments to provide relief from various hand and wrist issues. Notably, UCLA Health is home to one of the nation's first hand transplant programs, which has enabled patients to regain the use of their hands after life-altering injuries.

Convenient Access to Expert Care

UCLA Health offers multiple locations throughout the region, making it easy for patients to access timely and expert care for hand and wrist problems.

Same-Day Orthopedic Services

For sprains, strains, and fractures that require immediate attention, the Santa Monica Orthopedic Walk-In Clinic provides same-day orthopedic services. Orthopedic and sports medicine specialists are available to assess and treat common issues without the need for an appointment.

Specialized Hand Clinics

For ongoing symptoms or specialized care, UCLA Health's hand clinics offer expert evaluations, imaging, and therapy all in one location. This integrated approach streamlines the treatment process and enhances patient convenience.

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Level 1 Trauma Center

The Level 1 trauma center at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center provides the highest level of emergency care, with hand surgeons available on short notice when needed. This ensures that patients with traumatic hand and wrist injuries receive prompt and specialized treatment.

Pediatric Orthopedic Urgent Care

Children with urgent hand or wrist concerns can be seen without an appointment at the pediatric orthopedic urgent care. This service provides specialized care for young patients with acute injuries or conditions.

Comprehensive Areas of Care

UCLA Health's hand surgeons collaborate with multiple experts to evaluate, diagnose, and treat a wide range of hand and wrist conditions, including:

Children’s Congenital Hand Anomalies

A multidisciplinary team, including hand surgeons, pediatricians, geneticists, social workers, occupational therapists, and prosthetists, provides comprehensive diagnosis and surgical reconstruction for children with congenital hand anomalies.

Hand Arthritis

Hand surgeons, hand therapists, and rheumatologists work together to evaluate patients with arthritis, offering medical treatment, splinting, and surgical reconstruction to restore function and alleviate pain.

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Peripheral Nerve Injuries and Brachial Plexus

Hand surgeons and neurologists collaborate to diagnose and treat patients with peripheral nerve injuries of the shoulder, arm, and hand. Treatments may include nerve grafting or tendon transfers to restore nerve function and improve mobility.

Wrist Pain

Hand surgeons and radiologists work together to offer a full spectrum of imaging techniques to identify the source of wrist pain. A comprehensive evaluation is performed to develop a targeted treatment plan to provide relief.

Hand and Wrist Conditions Treated

UCLA Health's hand surgeons treat a wide range of conditions, including both acute injuries and chronic conditions:

Acute Injuries

Dislocations: Occur when one of the wrist or hand bones is forced out of its usual position, potentially damaging surrounding tissue and nerves.
Extensor Tendon Injuries: Injuries to the bands of connective tissue running along the top of the hand and wrist, often caused by a cut on the back of the hand or a jammed finger.
Flexor Tendon Injuries: Injuries to the bands of connective tissue running across the wrist and palm, often caused by a cut on the palm side of the forearm, wrist, or hand.
Fractures: Any break in the bones of the forearm, wrist, or hand.
Peripheral Nerve Injuries: Damage to the nerves carrying information between the brain and the arms and hands.

Chronic Conditions

Arthritis: Inflammation and tenderness in one or more joints, possibly caused by an autoimmune disease (rheumatoid arthritis) or cartilage deterioration (osteoarthritis).
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Compression of the median nerve, which runs through the passageway in the wrist and palm side of the hand (carpal tunnel).
Congenital Hand Deformities: Any irregularity in the hands or fingers present at birth.
Cubital Tunnel Syndrome: Compression or stretching of the nerve running from the elbow through the forearm and hand.
Dupuytren’s Contracture: Gradual thickening of the skin in the palm, eventually leading to one or multiple fingers bending toward the palm.
Radial Tunnel Syndrome: Compression of the nerve that starts in the neck and runs through the arm.
Tumors: Masses of irregular cells that grow uncontrollably and can be cancerous (malignant) or noncancerous (benign).

Hand and Wrist Surgeries Offered

UCLA Health's surgeons utilize the latest techniques to promote excellent outcomes. Surgeries offered include:

Amputation: Removing all or a portion of a finger or hand, often to keep a life-threatening infection from spreading.
Fracture Repair: Fixing a broken bone by placing pins, screws, plates, or rods to hold the bone in place while it heals.
Microsurgical Replantation and Revascularization: Reattaching an amputated hand or finger and restoring blood flow.
Needle Aponeurotomy: Straightening bent fingers due to Dupuytren’s contracture. This offers a quicker procedure with fewer complications, less pain and faster recovery.
Nerve Decompression: Making an incision in a ligament to release pressure on nerves.
Nerve Grafting: Repairing a damaged nerve by taking a healthy nerve and rerouting it to the damaged one.
Tendon Transfers: Repairing a damaged tendon by replacing it with a working muscle and tendon from elsewhere in the body.
Wrist Arthroscopy: Inserting a tiny camera inside the wrist joint to examine or operate on tissues.

Meet the Team

UCLA Health's hand surgeons are nationally recognized experts in diagnosing and treating the full spectrum of hand and wrist conditions, including complex injuries and rare disorders.

Additional Services

UCLA Health offers a variety of additional services to support patients throughout their care journey:

Hand Therapy Program

The Hand Therapy Program is staffed by experienced therapists, including certified hand therapists (CHT), who specialize in the treatment of hand and upper extremity injuries. The goal of therapy is to address each individual's goals and needs, decrease/manage pain, diminish deficits due to injury/condition and promote healing and return the individual to an optimal functional status. Therapists provide one-on-one treatment for a variety of hand and upper extremity injuries, including:

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
Cumulative trauma disorders (CTD)
Dislocations and sprains
Fractures of the hand, wrist, forearm, and humerus
Repetitive strain injuries (RSI), including carpal tunnel syndrome and other nerve compressions
Tendinitis
Tendon and nerve lacerations
Various types of arthritis including rheumatoid, osteoarthritis, scleroderma, and psoriatic arthritis

A holistic approach to evaluation and assessment of each individual's condition and needs will result in a customized treatment approach and plan. Therapists work closely with the referring physician to ensure continuity of care. The personalized therapy program may consist of custom fabricated orthotics to promote healing and /or functional use of the hand, manual therapy techniques, modalities, exercises, instruction in adaptive equipment, time management, joint protection techniques. The therapy program may also consist of instruction in ergonomics which may include proper set up of the computer.

Pelvic Health Physical Therapy

Pelvic health physical therapists optimize pelvic floor muscle health and treat pelvic floor dysfunction. Pelvic health physical therapists can help patients with a range of concerns and health conditions including (but not limited to): bladder concerns (urgency, leakage), bowel dysfunction (constipation, leakage), pelvic pain, pregnancy and postpartum care, or post abdominal and pelvic surgery.

Alter G Anti-Gravity Treadmill Cash Pay Exercise Program

Open to all UCLA patients and athletes of all levels! Control the amount of weight bearing through your joints; range from 20 to 100% of your body weight. Continue your post-rehab exercise routine. Minimum age 14; users ages 14-17 must be accompanied by an adult.

A Commitment to Service Members and Veterans

UCLA Health demonstrates a strong commitment to service members and veterans through various initiatives, including the Katz Center for Collaborative Military Medicine.

The Ronald A. Katz Center for Collaborative Military Medicine

UCLA has launched one of the first university-based centers located on the West Coast to collaborate with the military to help improve care for our service members, thanks to a generous donation from two sons in honor of their father, the inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist Ronald A. Katz. The new Katz Center, conceived by the sons as a meaningful way to honor Ronald A. Katz, will focus on enhancing treatment protocols for craniofacial reconstruction, burn repair, limb reconstruction, hand and face transplantation, traumatic brain injury and other critical areas prioritized by the military. "This new center will leverage and maximize the university's brain trust of knowledge, experience, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit to address and tackle the challenges of military medicine.

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