(OC Register)
Surgeon who turns toes into fingers joins UCI
July 23rd, 2008, 12:00 am · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
An award-winning microsurgeon who helped pioneer the process of turning patient’s toes into thumbs and fingers so they could overcome injury or deformity is joining UC Irvine as director of the university’s new Center for Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery.
Neil Jones was recruited from UCLA, where he created a similar center that became known worldwide for reconstructive microsurgery that’s done on hands, elbows, shoulders and wrists.
The 59-year-old Jones is one of the few surgeons in the world who has performed several hundred “toe-to-hand” transfers, and is regarded in the medical community as something of a wizard in treating very small children.
“Their blood vessels and nerves are so tiny you must wait until the child is large enough for you to join the vessels and use sutures,” says the Oxford-educated Jones, who has been listed in the Best Doctors in America database since 1992. The sutures are thinner than a human hair.
This photograph shows the hand of a 2-year-old boy who originally was missing four fingers and a thumb. Jones took two “second toes” — the ones next to the great toe — and constructed a thumb and a finger on the child’s hand so that he could “pinch and grasp.” (Click image to enlarge.)
“When you look at the patient’s foot you can’t tell there is anything abnormal other than the scar,” says Jones, whose operations take eight to 12 hours. Typically, the nerves grow back and the patient has very good sensation in his or her hand.
Jones also performs toe-to-hand transfers on adults. His patients have included everyone from a girl who went on to become a top gymnast to a young boy who is gaining a sense of normalcy after Jones transferred a toe to the child’s hand to serve as a finger.
“His mother said he was able to ride his tricycle and feed himself,” Jones says. “It’s hard to describe the feeling you get from that.”
Jones also treats other type of hand injuries and disorders, and his patients have included many celebrities, including actor Brad Pitt. He will work out of UCI Medical Center in Orange and is expected to expand his practice to Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
July 23rd, 2008, 12:00 am · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
An award-winning microsurgeon who helped pioneer the process of turning patient’s toes into thumbs and fingers so they could overcome injury or deformity is joining UC Irvine as director of the university’s new Center for Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery.
Neil Jones was recruited from UCLA, where he created a similar center that became known worldwide for reconstructive microsurgery that’s done on hands, elbows, shoulders and wrists.
The 59-year-old Jones is one of the few surgeons in the world who has performed several hundred “toe-to-hand” transfers, and is regarded in the medical community as something of a wizard in treating very small children.
“Their blood vessels and nerves are so tiny you must wait until the child is large enough for you to join the vessels and use sutures,” says the Oxford-educated Jones, who has been listed in the Best Doctors in America database since 1992. The sutures are thinner than a human hair.
This photograph shows the hand of a 2-year-old boy who originally was missing four fingers and a thumb. Jones took two “second toes” — the ones next to the great toe — and constructed a thumb and a finger on the child’s hand so that he could “pinch and grasp.” (Click image to enlarge.)
“When you look at the patient’s foot you can’t tell there is anything abnormal other than the scar,” says Jones, whose operations take eight to 12 hours. Typically, the nerves grow back and the patient has very good sensation in his or her hand.
Jones also performs toe-to-hand transfers on adults. His patients have included everyone from a girl who went on to become a top gymnast to a young boy who is gaining a sense of normalcy after Jones transferred a toe to the child’s hand to serve as a finger.
“His mother said he was able to ride his tricycle and feed himself,” Jones says. “It’s hard to describe the feeling you get from that.”
Jones also treats other type of hand injuries and disorders, and his patients have included many celebrities, including actor Brad Pitt. He will work out of UCI Medical Center in Orange and is expected to expand his practice to Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
