Arthroscopic wrist surgery conference

Dr Adriaan Smit is an Orthopaedic surgeon at Mediclinic Durbanville specialising in shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand surgery. 

He is actively promoting arthroscopic wrist surgery due to quicker recovery for patients and due to avoidance of troublesome deep scar tissues often seen with open surgical techniques.

Dr Smit was recently approached by the European Wrist Arthroscopic Society (EWAS) to initiate an advanced training course in Cape Town during November 2016. A first for Africa, this course brought together internationally recognised surgeons and the hand surgery fraternity in South Africa.

Facilitated by Karl Storz Endoscopy, the South African Society for Surgery of the Hand (SASSH) hosted the course at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. Experts professor Christophe Mathoulin (Institut de la Main, Clinique de l’Ospédale, Paris, France) and Dr Petrus van Hoonacker (AZ Sint-Jan Brugge-Oostende, Brugge) offered their expertise in training on various aspects of wrist scope surgery, including ligament repairs. Presentations were given by these two visitors, course director Dr Adriaan Smit and faculty doctors Martin Wells (Mediclininc Panorama, Cape Town) and Ajmal Ikram (Tygerberg hospital, Cape Town).

Dr Smit was then invited as faculty member (a first for a South African doctor) to the recent EWAS advanced wrist scope course hosted in Strasburg, France. He has since performed his first arthroscopic wrist ligament repair on a patient at Mediclinic Durbanville.

Dr Smit initially gained his experience in arthroscopic wrist surgery during his fellowship training in the United Kingdom at the Pulvertaft Hand Unit and at Wrightington Hospital from 2004 to 2006, bringing these skills to South Africa when he established his practice.

He says the major benefits of arthroscopic wrist surgery are the patient’s quicker, more complete recovery. ‘Scar tissue restricts the dexterity and movement in the hand, so with smaller incisions the patient’s experience is a better hand than is sometimes achieved by open surgery,’ he explains. Further benefits include the earlier mobilisation following surgery as well as outpatient surgery.

A second EWAS conference is already planned for 2017 and should again attract hand surgeons from outside South Africa.