The hand surgery unit was established in 1973 at the height of the Yom Kippur war. Its first manager and the founder of the hand surgery profession in Israel was the late Prof. Kessler, who was known as a leading surgeon in Israel and abroad. Prof. Kessler invented many surgical techniques which are applied around the world today.
The hand surgery unit serves all the population in Israel and the world, including soldiers and defense personnel.
The unit employs three attending doctors, an intern and doctors from the district and from other units for short term trainings.
The unit is composed of a nursing staff that serves the patients and manages the clinic activity. Also, the rehabilitation team includes three hand therapists.
Surgeries
The hand surgery unit provides an answer to all hand problems. These answers include the diagnosis the conservative or surgical therapy and the rehabilitation required to restore the function to the hand. The hand rehabilitation institute works in complete cooperation with the doctors.
The unit handles complex congenital flaws, developmental hand problems, rheumatic diseases which affect the hand, locking situations for tendons and nerves in the upper limbs, changes and various genetic diseases, occupational diseases and all types of hand traumas.
Among others, we treat the following clinical conditions:
1. Trigger finger
2. Carpal tunnel syndrome
3. De Quervain’s disease
4. Ulnar entrapment neuropathy
5. Dupuytren’s disease
6. Osteoarthritis
7. Rheumatoid arthritis
8. Birth palsy
9. Congenital flaws such as syndactyly, polydactyly, bifid thumb, congenital trigger thumb
10. Cerebral palsy
11. Hand tumors
12. Ganglion
13. Traumatic injuries (nerve suture, tendon suture)
14. Various fractures (open and closed fixation)
15. Mallet finger
The unit performs about 1000 surgeries every year. The surgeries are done both ambulatory and in full admittance. The unit operates on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays every week and performs emergency surgeries in urgent situations.
Any patient designated for surgery within the unit gets a multi-participants and multi disciplinary discussion before the decision about the treatment. The unit performs clinical discussions of complex cases or of cases that we are required to by colleagues from other hospitals.
Clinics
The clinics are divided to an outpatient clinic and a therapeutic clinic. The clinic examines 9000 patients every year.
Outpatient clinic: We receive new patients who are referred by doctors in the community and patients on follow up.
The clinic is conducted 3 times a week during the morning. It is located in the clinic building on level 4.
Therapeutic clinic: We receive post-op patients or patients who are referred to treatment after a primary call to the emergency room. This clinic performs minor procedures and ambulatory treatments. It is located on the 6th floor of the hospitalization building.
A Unique Profession
Due to the great complexity of the human hand, the hand surgery was defined as a profession and it requires an additional internship of two and a half years beyond the basic internship in orthopedic or plastic surgery. The diagnoses and surgeries in this field are demanding and require both great surgical skills, a deep understanding in the various disease and healing processes and above all, the ability to work in a multi-disciplinary team which includes occupational therapists and physical therapists.
The hand surgery in the Kaplan Medical Center has been a national leader in this unique fields and developments that started at Kaplan Medical Center are adopted by surgeons around the world. The Prof. Kesler tendon suture, for instance, is the most acceptable suture in the world, in the surgical care for tendon damage of the hand benders, and it is used in the far east, Asia, Europe and even North and South America. Also our neighbors in the Middle East use the technique invented by Prof. Kesler at the time.
Academic Activity
The unit is familiar by the scientific council for complete internship in hand surgery. We accept experts doctors in orthopedic or plastic surgery. The unit actively participates in national and international conventions. The unit deals with basic and applied research and in the integration of ground breaking technologies aimed to heal patients and improve the aesthetics and the function of the hand.
