This week MedSoc welcomed Professor Grey Giddins, who spoke to a virtual audience about the latest advances in the field of hand surgery. 

Professor Giddins is a prominent consultant orthopaedic hand surgeon and visiting professor at the University of Bath. He described to the audience the various methods he uses, including some that he invented, to rehabilitate and repair the severely injured hands he encounters, many of which seemed irreversibly damaged.  

He demonstrated the fascinatingly complex anatomy of the hand, inspiring our curiosity in his explanation of how and why the hand works as it does and pointing out the multitude of deformations that may affect the hand. 

Throughout Professor Giddins’s talk, it quickly became evident that hand surgery was not simply a professional speciality but a craft, one that has a profound ability to improve the physical and emotional wellbeing of patients. Each case is a puzzle, and from Syndactyly to Dupuytren’s contracture, the surgeon must be decisive, focussed and creative.

Although hand surgery techniques have advanced greatly over the last few years, he anticipates techniques will continue developing rapidly and will gradually move away from surgical approaches towards drug-related treatment options.  

We wish to thank Professor Giddins for an insightful evening, giving airtime to a normally underappreciated, but essential, part of the body.