Hand surgery is concerned with acute injuries and chronic diseases of the hand and wrist, correction of congenital malformations of the upper extremities, and peripheral nerve problems (such as brachial plexus injuries or carpal tunnel syndrome). Hand surgery is an important part of training in plastic surgery, as well as microsurgery, which is necessary to replant an amputated extremity. The hand surgery field is also practiced by orthopaedic surgeons. Scar tissue formation after surgery can be problematic on the delicate hand, causing loss of dexterity and digit function if severe enough. After a specialised training, a hand surgeon addresses many simple and complicated issues resulting from birth anomalies like thumb duplication, multiple hand and finger deformities (polydactyly, syndactyly, campto-dactyly, radial club hand etc). They also perform post traumatic hand reconstructions involving bony skeleton of the hand and soft tissue involving tendons, nerves and vessels.
Microsurgery is generally concerned with the reconstruction of missing tissues by transferring a piece of tissue to the reconstruction site and reconnecting blood vessels. Popular subspecialty areas are breast reconstruction, head and neck reconstruction, hand surgery/replantation, and brachial plexus surgery