Salvage surgery for severely deformed hands in leprosy.

Results of surgery of nine cases of severely deformed hands (considered "useless/hopeless") and the techniques used in each of them to achieve a 'functional hand' are described. The techniques used were: Pollicization of Prof G Brunelli, Cocked-hat technique of Gillies, JESS distractor of BB Joshi. All patients had good results after surgery. However, two patients developed some deformity because of insensitive hands'; This type of surgery is not done routinely but authors would like to encourage other surgeons to try these techniques as hands of a number of patients can be made 'functional' by any of these procedures.