Hand surgery inspiration

Hand surgery

I've been talking to people about hands.  Here are some of the nuggets that have turned up:

Musicians
- JP Ekins - Piano players' hands have wider reach as the thumb and little finger are sufficiently stretched apart to make a straight line.  Stretching a 9th is a normal reach.  Left hands apparently usually have a larger reach
- Liam Waddle - worried about arthritis.  Seemed to have a hyperextended thumb and middle finger on his right hand
- Dom Pipkin (& the Iko's) - noticeable broadened finger pads; apparently painful after a session of hammering the notes.  Amazing pianist tho
- Patrick (drummer with the Iko's): natural finger cadence is used as a guide when teaching drumming pupils to pick up their sticks

Sports
- Climbers' hands have denser bones, stratified relating to pressures used in their climbing - seen on a Sheffield example BBC documentary about anatomy.  Link to a related paper - one of the authors has surname 'Carpi'

General arts
- Carlo Maria Mariani - "The hand submits to the intellect" - representing the postmodernist 'meta-art' critique: a picture of two men painting each other, indicating that art is self-generated and hermetically sealed.
- Robert / Patrick Scott - Hands are one of the hardest things to get right when painting -> and occasionally palmed off onto the artist's assistant.  The size of hand from distal wrist crease to fingertip is approximately that from chin to hairline.

Medical lectures
- Morgan X / Louise Hickey - greater density of nerve fibres in fingertips enables more effective tactile discrimination.  Morgan (as an architect) talked of being able to 'grasp' a design - only engaging with a building design once he had physically felt it.  Haptic object recognition (stereognosis) enables us to generate a virtual image of an object without seeing it.
- Hand transplants: 80% of tactile function may be achievable with appropriate patient concordance with physiotherapy (from Blood and Guts, the History of Surgery).  Choosing an appropriately hairy / sized / gendered hand is important.  Immunosuppressant anti-rejection drugs may reduce patient lifespan.
- Carer: massive functional loss that occurred when his wife finally lost the ability to move both hands.  Even the basics like television remote and panic button use.  Preserving hand function is v important (perhaps a point for voice control).  Story was told by a 70+ y/o carer who's part of the MS society.


[To be added to]