Originally Posted by
Arthur Peabody
I had an osteochondroma on the distal end of the ulna congenitally. After an injury when I was 17, it was removed, leaving a gap between the ulna and the DRUJ. 25 years ago a hand surgeon recommended a Kapandji 'reconstruction' but also said, 'We have 6 different reconstructions for this because we don't know what we're doing.' (Fun fact: he treated Mick Jagger.) I read up on these reconstructions at UCLA's medical library (not the Internet); they often went awry and didn't always improve their patients' arms. I demurred.
The wrist has begun to hurt, occasionally making the hand unusable, apparently in response to long bicycle rides (my favorite pastime). I've thought about surgery again so ask here.
Does your ulna meet your DRUJ? Does the plate repair the ulna? None of the reconstructions offered to me involve a plate, perhaps because the joint is too mobile.
Not sure what the DRUJ is, but I have a break that separated the head of the ulna from the ”shaft.” The head was also split so the bone pieces were kind of a jumble, rather deformed in appearance and immobile. The surgery was a reduction, to restore correct orientation. The X-rays show the plate connecting the pieces together in shapes that the doc says are what the bones are supposed to look like. The radius and ulna are not rubbing against each other or the wrist bones as far as I can see.
So I would say the plate repairs the ulna. It does not connect any bone that was not originally connected.
Ohhhh, it must be distal radial-ulnal joint? What does it mean to meet that joint? Seems to me both bones are parts of that joint, no? Or is that the basis of the gap you mentioned? If so, then my ulna is now clearly a part of that joint. Probably my situation is rather different from yours, if I’m jumping to the right conclusions. But I’m not ANY sort of a doctor.
And I’m gonna jump just a bit further, to surmise that your wrist has too much mobility because of the gap that is present.