The department is named after Guy Pulvertaft who worked at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary from 1947 until his retirement in 1972. Guy Pulvertaft was born in Cork in May 1907 and he died in August 1986. He was an internationally recognised hand surgeon. He went to Cambridge University and trained at St Thomas Hospital in London. He qualified as an orthopaedic surgeon working in London, Liverpool and Oswestry. In 1937, he worked as an orthopaedic surgeon in Grimsby where fish were gutted on the quayside of the docks. Sharp knives and cold numb hands caused many hand lacerations and cut tendons. Tendon injuries left a stiff finger at risk for further injury and amputation at the outset was commonplace. Guy Pulvertaft developed a technique to repair the injured tendons, which came to be recognised as a major advance in the care of hand injuries. He developed his surgical techniques throughout the war years in Grimsby but also worked for the Royal Air Force treating injured aircrew from the hostilities.
His final ten years working in Derby as a consultant were spent exclusively treating hand injuries and disorders. Guy Pulvertaft was an inaugural member of the Hand Club, which eventually became the British Society for Surgery of the Hand. He became its first President and was Vice President for the British Orthopaedic Association (the main professional body for orthopaedic surgeons in the United Kingdom). In 1970, he was President of the International Federation of Societies for the Surgery of the Hand and was named a pioneer in hand surgery by that organisation shortly after his death. He was awarded the CBE for services to hand surgery in 1972 on retirement from the health service. In retirement, he helped to set up hand surgery services in Ireland, Kuwait and in The Africa Leprosy Centre in Addis Ababa.
Guy Pulvertaft will be remembered as an inspiring teacher who shared his skills widely. He never lost enthusiasm for hand surgery, taking notes at lectures and conferences in Derby even when 79 years of age.
Guy Pulvertaft was succeeded first by Campbell Semple in 1972 and subsequently by John Varian in 1974. John Varian transferred to Dublin in 1981 and, at that time, the post of consultant hand surgeon was taken up by Mr Frank Burke. Frank Burke has been President and Secretary of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand at various times and was also the inaugural president of BAHT. The unit developed significantly under his leadership. Professor Burke was made a visiting professor to the University of Derby in 1996.
In 1983 Peter Lunn joined the Hand Unit doing both hand and general orthopaedic surgery initially, before moving on to do hand and upper limb surgery exclusively. He has a particular interest in elbow and shoulder work as well as hands.
A third consultant, Chris Bainbridge joined the unit in 1994. Mr Bainbridge has a particular interest in brachial plexus injuries and congenital deformities. A fourth consultant was appointed in 1996. That particular post is now occupied by Carlos Heras-Palou who joined the unit in 2001. Mr Heras-Palou is developing his interest in wrist problems.
In 2003, Mr David Quinton and Miss Jill Arrowsmith were also appointed to the unit. Mr Quinton has a particular interest in Hand Trauma and Jill Arrowsmith, who is from a Plastic Surgery background, is interested in microvascular and congenital work. Tommy Lindau, from Sweden, joined the Unit in 2005 - and he shares Carlos Heras Palou's interest in complex wrist problems. Tracy Horton is the most recent consultant appointment - having joined the unit in 2007.
The unit has 5 Specialist Registrars in training as well as a registrar who does partly research and partly clinical work. There are also some sessions from an upper limb specialist registrar.
The department has its own twin theatre suite, although some emergencies are still carried out either in the orthopaedic or trauma theatres. The department moved into its own outpatient department (separate from the orthopaedic outpatients) in 1996. At the same time, a Monday to Friday Day Case ward for hand surgery was also established. Currently the number of new patients seen in the hand clinic amounts to nearly 8000 per annum with the number of reviews standing at approximately 20,000. Approximately 3,700 operations are performed each year within the hand surgery theatres.
There has been an expansion over the years in the hand occupational therapy and the hand physiotherapy team. Jo Ellis (Physio) and Helen McKenna (OT) have recently been promoted to Extended Scope Practitioner posts in Hand Therapy and have their own independent clinics. There are also 3 Nurse Practitioner posts in the outpatient department (also with their own clinics). Funding (from Trust Funds) has also been made available to support some therapists who wish to undertake research and audit work.
The department has always been known for running postgraduate courses for doctors, nurses and therapists; the department also runs a course for local GPs on common elective hand surgery conditions. A large amount of research and audit work is carried out and 2007 has been particularly successful in terms of papers published. A separate research and postgraduate section of the hand surgery department was established in 2000 to take care of this side of the work. For current courses and research projects please see separate section.
