(WISH) — Wrists can move any which way. They’re made up of 10 small bones, and three joints.

“The wrist joint is composed of the radiocarpal joint, which is the wrist that goes back and forth, but people don’t realize that the other half of the joint is this joint,” said John Fernandez, hand and wist specialist.

And when one of those bones or joints goes bad, people can be left in pain, and until recently, doctors could do little to help.

“The way we would treat this is, we would remove that bone and, literally, throw it away. And then, we would pray that the connection between these two bones would be restored, but it really would never be truly restored,” Fernandez said.

But now, hand specialist John Fernandez at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush is one of the few surgeons in the country to replace the distal radial ulnar joint with a metal implant.

“It’s like putting the hinge back on the door. So, now, the door can open properly. And what’s most remarkable is, that you see these patients two weeks later, they have no pain. And these are patients who have been in pain for literally 20 years. They’ve had five or six failed surgeries,” he said.

And the best part? No rehab!

“There’s none because you haven’t touched the muscles, you haven’t touched the tendons,” Fernandez said.

Within two weeks, patients are back doing what they love. Active, without pain.

This story was created from a script aired on WISH-TV. Health Spotlight is presented by Community Health Network.