If you need a wrist surgeon in Orlando, the reason is usually one of three things: a fracture that is not healing the way it should, pain that has outlasted every attempt to rest it, or numbness and weakness that is starting to affect what you can do with your hand. Orlando Hand Surgery Associates treats all three across four Central Florida offices. Request an appointment online or call (407) 841-2100.
Why the Wrist Is Different
The wrist is eight small bones, a dense bundle of tendons, and the nerves that supply the entire hand, all packed into a joint about the width of your palm. That density is why wrist problems are easy to misjudge. A scaphoid fracture can look like a sprain on the first X-ray. Carpal tunnel syndrome can present as clumsiness rather than pain. Tendonitis on the thumb side of the wrist and arthritis at the base of the thumb produce similar complaints and need entirely different treatment.
It is also why the wrist rewards a specialist. A general orthopedic practice sees wrists occasionally. A hand and upper extremity practice sees them all day.
Conditions We Treat
- Distal radius and scaphoid fractures.
- Carpal tunnel syndrome.
- Wrist tendonitis, including extensor carpi ulnaris tendonitis and de Quervain's tenosynovitis.
- Ligament injuries and instability.
- Ganglion cysts.
- Arthritis of the wrist and thumb base.
- TFCC tears.
- Nerve compression.
- Work and sports injuries.
Surgery Is Not the First Answer
Most wrist problems that reach this practice are treated without an operation. Bracing, activity modification, targeted hand therapy and corticosteroid injections resolve a large share of tendonitis and early nerve compression. Many fractures heal well in a cast when the bone is in acceptable position.
Surgery becomes the right answer in specific circumstances: a fracture where the bone fragments will not stay aligned, a nerve under enough sustained pressure that waiting risks permanent damage, a ligament tear producing instability, or a problem that has already been through non-surgical treatment without improvement. Your surgeon should be able to tell you which of these applies to you and what happens if you wait.
What Recovery Looks Like
Recovery depends far more on what was done than on who did it. A carpal tunnel release is an outpatient procedure with light use of the hand returning within days and full recovery over several weeks. A wrist fracture fixed with a plate and screws typically means a period of protection followed by a course of hand therapy, with a return to full activity measured in months rather than weeks.
The honest version is that recovery timelines vary by patient, by the injury and by how consistently the therapy is done. A surgeon who gives you a single confident number for every case is not telling you the whole picture. Ask for the range and what moves you toward the good end of it.
Our Wrist and Hand Surgeons
Offices: Downtown Orlando (Thursdays), Winter Garden (Mondays and Fridays), Kissimmee (Wednesdays)
Offices: Downtown Orlando, Winter Garden (Wednesdays), Kissimmee (Mondays)
Offices: Deltona and Winter Garden
Offices: Downtown Orlando, Winter Garden
Offices: Downtown Orlando, Deltona
Offices: Downtown Orlando
Dr. Ferreira is a fellowship trained sports medicine orthopaedic surgeon who was born in Recife, Brazil, and raised in Orlando, FL. He completed his undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Central Florida and went on to attend medical school at Florida State University.
Offices: Downtown Orlando, Winter Garden, Kissimmee
Dr. Robert “Cole” Schmidt, MD, returns to Central Florida to join Orlando Hand Surgery Associates after completing his fellowship in shoulder and elbow surgery at the Florida Orthopedic Institute in Tampa.
Offices: Downtown Orlando, Winter Garden, Kissimmee
Where to Find Us
Do Not Wait on These
Get seen promptly if your wrist is visibly deformed after a fall, if you cannot bear weight through it, if numbness wakes you at night, if your grip has weakened noticeably, or if pain has not improved after two to three weeks. Wrist injuries that heal in the wrong position are considerably harder to fix later than they are to treat correctly at the start.
To see a wrist surgeon in Orlando, request an appointment online or call (407) 841-2100.