What is it about?
WALANT (Wide Awake Local Anesthesia No Tourniquet) flexor tendon repair is a new way to repair lacerated flexor tendons.
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Why is it important?
This method has improved results of flexor tendon repair and decreased the risk of the worst complication, repair rupture. This technique also reduces the need for additional surgery such as tenolysis to free tendons stuck in scar. Cost of surgery is greatly reduced so patients who cannot afford general anesthesia and full operating room sterility can benefit from this operation to restore a useful hand.
Perspectives
Most countries now have surgeons who have adopted the wide awake approach to tendon surgery because they understand the benefits of this simpler approach. They get to see the unsedated cooperative pain free patient actively move reconstructed tendons during surgery. Active movement by the patient will often reveal tendon gapping, the need for pulley venting, a transfer that is too loose, or a tendon still trapped in scar.
Dr Donald H Lalonde
Dalhousie University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Wide Awake Flexor Tendon Repair in the Finger, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open, July 2016, Wolters Kluwer Health,
DOI: 10.1097/gox.0000000000000756.
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