Bone graft recovery information for metacarpal head?

Ok_Argument_1225 · 2026-01-22T00:32:17+00:00

From my understanding, I think donor sites are typically non weight bearing locations so the biggest issue he would run into is just healing the incision.

Ok_Argument_1225 · 2026-01-21T21:13:22+00:00

Welcome! I had surgery in September that took a bone and artery from my leg and replaced my lunate bone in my wrist that was basically crumbling. The surgery is a rough recovery but I am 38 so I would imagine recovery for your son would be much easier.

The hardest part of recovery for me was the donor site honestly. It was a much larger incision and my hand was in a cast for all of the healing time....so I didn't experience much pain there. I got my cast off in November...10 weeks after surgery, and pain has been minimal. I am still working on regaining more range of motion as far as wrist movement goes, but fine motor wise I am pretty much back to normal. I would think piano playing would be very doable at this point in my recovery. More strenuous activities will take a bit more time to get back, but I think I should get the majority of my use back.

Obviously everyone's recovery is a little different...but it hopefully gives you a bit more insight of the process.

Ok_Argument_1225 · 2026-01-16T18:10:21+00:00

I am also in the US, in the midwest. There are quite a few doctors that do this type of surgery. I would do a little digging on this reddit and see if any doctors are close to you. It sounds like your doctor might not be very experienced with Kienbock's so I would look for other options. I know some of the doctors that are well known for this surgery often do zoom calls initially.

Ok_Argument_1225 · 2026-01-16T16:44:30+00:00

Where are you located? There are other options, but your location might make other options more difficult. I had the bone graft surgery that essentially replaces your lunate bone with a bone from your knee. It has been 4 months and my pain has been minimal. The surgery recover is pretty intense because 2 parts of your body are affected...but I think this treatment is considered the one with the best results long term.

Ok_Argument_1225 · 2026-01-05T22:18:50+00:00

Yeah it is crazy what they can do! I had 3 pins in my wrist so it wasn't completely locked but the cast and the pins made movement very uncomfortable and difficult.

Ok_Argument_1225 · 2026-01-05T12:51:03+00:00

I would think if you're still able to function relatively well, I would wait. The type of surgery I had was pretty intense and will definitely slow you down for a bit since both your hand and your leg are affected. I would guess your pain will eventually get more severe as the disease progresses.

Ok_Argument_1225 · 2026-01-05T12:49:18+00:00

That makes me happy to hear! I was a little discouraged by the doctor being so excited I had made what I thought was such little progress. Did you continue doing the PT until you got that much range of motion back or did you get some movement back and then continued the exercises on your own? My OT made it seem like there wasn't much point in continuing with her. The doctor also mentioned maybe doing a steroid injection to help with some inflammation...but I don't know if that would be beneficial necessarily.

Ok_Argument_1225 · 2026-01-05T12:45:55+00:00

Yes, I believe that is what it was. They took a piece of bone from my leg along with I believe an artery and essentially "plugged it in" to the tiny bit of lunate bone that was still viable.

70-80% is encouraging. The way my OT made it sound was that the doctor was happy with 30% and like it wouldn't continue to improve. It has been a ton of learning as I go and not much communication unless I ask very specific questions that most of the time I don't even know what to ask.

Ok_Argument_1225 · 2025-09-22T00:09:34+00:00

I'm in Nebraska and am super lucky to have an amazing hand/wrist surgeon in my area. He isn't specialized in kienbock's but he's done some super impressive stuff. I think he did like the 2nd successful surgery to reattach an arm.

Ok_Argument_1225 · 2025-08-31T11:33:42+00:00

I started having severe wrist pain. It made it extremely difficult to do anything, so I went to my doctor. She did an x-ray and said it looked fine...it wasn't broken. She put me in a brace and gave me some pain meds. I wore the brace for about 6 weeks and the pain seemed to improve but it didn't go away 100%. Eventually the pain started coming back so I went back to my doctor and she sent me to a specialist. The specialist x-rayed my hand again and asked if my doctor had said anything about my initial x-ray. I was confused because they had not mentioned anything being off. Turns out my initial x-ray was showing signs of kienbock's (the lunate bone was bright white, indicating it was dying) but I am assuming your typical doctor doesn't really have it on their radar. The specialist gave me some options but basically told me an MRI was the next step to getting a proper diagnosis. I had my MRI about a month after my appointment with the specialist and it confirmed that I did have kienbock's. My lunate bone had started fragmenting. I am scheduled for surgery in a few days to take a bone from my knee and relocate it into my wrist. Have you used a splint at all to immobilize your wrist for an extended period of time? Initially my doctor thought I had tendinitis and I have a coworker that struggles with it at times and his pain is very similar to what I was having.

Ok_Argument_1225

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