The Brunelli Procedure is a surgical procedure that can be used to correct instability in the

wrist In human anatomy, the wrist is variously defined as (1) the carpus or carpal bones, the complex of eight bones forming the proximal skeletal segment of the hand; "The wrist contains eight bones, roughly aligned in two rows, known as the carpal ...

. Instability in the wrist can be caused by a torn Scapholunate

ligament A ligament is a type of fibrous connective tissue in the body that connects bones to other bones. It also connects flight feathers to bones, in dinosaurs and birds. All 30,000 species of amniotes (land animals with internal bones) have liga ...

. The Brunelli Procedure does not fix the torn ligament. A hole is drilled through the

Scaphoid The scaphoid bone is one of the carpal bones of the wrist. It is situated between the hand and forearm on the thumb side of the wrist (also called the lateral or radial side). It forms the radial border of the carpal tunnel. The scaphoid bone ...

bone and a part of a tendon taken from the patient is put through this hole and attached to the nearby bones. The procedure usually results in reduced movement of the wrist. Instability in the wrist can, over time, lead to

wrist osteoarthritis Wrist osteoarthritis is gradual loss of articular cartilage and hypertrophic bone changes (osteophytes). While in many joints this is part of normal aging (senescence), in the wrist osteoarthritis usually occurs over years to decades after scapholu ...

References

Orthopedic surgical procedures {{surgery-stub