Four corner fusion - what's your experience?

[Suzywoo2222]

I am a 34 year old UK based female.  I had a 4 corner fusion, scaphoidectomy and radial styloidectomy in October 2009. I am interested to hear from other people who have had the same procedure to compare experiences.

[AZBrit]

Broke the scaphoid 40 years ago playing rugby. Diagnosed as a chipped bone at the time, so "no big deal." 7 years later I jammed the wrist on a locked revolving door. X-ray revealed an old fracture. Chose not to have a bone graft and 16 weeks in a cast. Pain free for next 32 years until it suddenly dislodged and crumbled while applauding a speech. Had scaphoid excision and four corner fusion on May 20th. Painful for about 3-4 weeks but now just soreness around the incision. Will be in a splint for another 8 weeks. PT to move fingers is going fine. Not looking forward to bending the wrist.

Are other people doing OK?  Any problems? Any advice?

[Jayne462]

I had the 4 corner fusion on May 18th, Shannon.  What did the Dr. say about complications?  RU doing okay now?  This was a painful surgery - just hope it works - no more pain but still some motion in my wrist....Please let us know.

[Shannonvdb]

Had 4 corner fusion in 2009 after a failed SL LT reconstructions. In the last 3 days I've had some rather concerning pain which is prompting me to go back to the doctor. I am just wondering if anyone else has had complications nearly 2 years after a 4 corner fusion?

[holts]

Hi, I am new to this site but couldn't help joining after reading so many people hurting with wrist problems. My health issues could create volumes for books. In fact many have suggested that I do write one. Anyway, many many health issues with 34 surgeries in all so far. Five of those surgeries have been on both wrist and I'm hoping my story might help someone else.
My wrist problems could have been caused by injuries however, somehow they both disintegrated when I was doing next to nothing (squeezing a pliers). Trying to shorten this story, I had the typical k-wires trying to put the bones back in place, which didn't work, so after two surgeries at home, I had to go to the Mayo Clinic. (Have kidney issues that require me to go there every year so I had a in) The orthopedic experts saw that I was a perfect candidate for a new surgery called "bone ligament bone transplant". By the way this all started on my left wrist in 1999 and after.  I was the 13th person in the world to receive this and supposedly the first one to fail. After my failure most of the other 12 failed too. So that brought me to the next best thing called "four corner fusion with spider plate". This too has basically failed and I have heard they stopped doing the spider plate also. I am now looking at "total fusion" but have been putting it off because of fearing the loss of movement. Although it's so painful now I can hardly move it anyway. Since the spider plate surgery, my right wrist did the same thing in 2006. They still don't understand why, but I lost both my Achilles tendons in both legs and the tendons and ligaments in my left ankle as well. They aren't kidding when they say the wrist is the most complicated joint in our body's. As I write this I am very close to the fusion in the left wrist and closed to a proximal row carpectomy  in the right one. I have a mini horse farm with lots of chores, play golf, do woodworking and many other things which need a good pain free wrist. Problems is I really need it to bend too. (without pain though) Anyway, if I had it to do all over again, I may have gone right to the total fusion because I have suffered so much for the last 12 years. Countless casts up to my shoulder, therapy specialist retired, I think just with me alone. More trips to doctors (Mayo Clinic) than I care to think about, not to mention the enormous cost.
I don't know what the best thing is to do. Everyone is different, with different complications. What one experience's the other has no clue. It's hard to ever say what someone should do. My advice is to find the best surgeon that specialises in hand and wrist. One that you can trust and who really does care about you personally. I have been lucky to have found that one expert and I  even was lucky enough to go to the so called best (Mayo Clinic) but when it comes down to it, it's really trying to make the best decision for what we each are going through at the time.
When I get that total fusion done, I will share that experience with you. Who ever reads this, I hope it helped some how and please know there's someone out here who can really relate to what your going through.

God Bless

[Quasarlis]

Hello Suzy. I have had 4 corner fusion surgery in 2007 following a mis-diagnosed displaced Scaphoid fracture as a 15yr old school boy in 1985, it was only brought to light after a mild accident on the same wrist when I was 20, the x-rays found I had 2 old fracture sites,  healed fusion lines on my Trapezium but my Scaphoid was basically in half still with a big cist inbetween the 2 halves. The side seperated from the blood supply had died (necrosis). I had 3 attempts made to fix this using bone grafts from my hip and Herbert screw to compress the union site of the fracture and over 9 months in plaster .. they thought the 3rd attempt had worked .. but un-knowing to me it had not, I thought the pain, stiffness etc I was suffering was a result of the surgery and my trade as a plasterer and hobby as a drummer. It was in 2004 when plastering a ceiling my wrist colapsed in, my Scaphiod basically crumbled, the pin was loose in my wrist cavity .. so on and so fourth. I had to have a 4 corner fusion done which is a Scaphoid removal and the fusion of bones in the wrist to compensate, also a lot of nerve work and ligament repair .... what basically happens is that they cause fractures across the bones in the wrist and fuse them together with pins and a spider wheel .. I'm not sure if you will need ligament and nerve work done but be prepared, I was in plaster for a further 2 months and my arm was black from my elbow down to my finger tips I kid you not!! Its one thing breaking a bone but its a totally different ball game when a surgeon has taken a drill, screw driver, screws, hammer and saw to them .. to be honest I would say put up with it how it is as mine is now weak and painful. I have lost about 40% of its movement, I can't apply pressure to my wrist at all through say leaning against a wall, press ups etc, my right hand is noticabley smaller than my Ieft and I have lost a lot of the motor funtions in my fingers and a simple thing like writing is very VERY painful

I wish you the best of luck Suzy

[kriyamon]

Excellent timing Suzy. I just had the operation done last week, Wednesday to be exact I am expecting great results. I headed cracked schaphoid from I was 16 years old but never healed properly and became a chronic. It caused me a great deal of pain and most everything I did with my right hand. I had the fourth quarter fusion and also I have my carpal total released at the same time. I've been very interested to communicate on this page with other members who have had the same operation. I'll be in a cast for another week or two and then down to the splint. My fingers move well at this point with little pain top of my hand is black and blue but other than that I feel pretty good about things. I'm 54 years old and can't wait to get back to gardening surfing playing guitar and all the other stuff I like to do. Let's share all we can to learn from each other about this topic that is difficult to find information on. By the way I am currently using Dragon in the software type this talk into a microphone and the software transposes to talking. Much much easier.