Matching Kienböck’s Treatment Options to Specific Features of Each Case

Kienbock’s disease is best understood as a continuous interaction between compromised perfusion and structural deterioration that transitions from an early phase to a late phase. Existing literature has failed to identify any one superior treatment for Kienbock’s; many studies even demonstrate no advantage for surgery compared with the natural history. Surgical interventions for early and transitional Kienbock’s are designed to preserve or reconstruct the lunate. However, in most studies, the only tool used to assess the lunate itself has been plain radiography that neither reveals critical architectural details (demonstrated by computed tomographic scan) nor the vascular status (demonstrated by magnetic resonance imaging). Most articles, therefore, do not adequately define the preoperative status of the lunate or its alteration through surgical intervention. Critical preoperative features that are best demonstrated by these advanced imaging studies have specific anatomic and physiologic relationships that better correspond with certain surgical interventions, which also pair better with specific patient characteristics. This review explains how to identify, analyze, and strategically match these variables with the treatment interventions available for Kienbock’s patients through the early, transitional, and late phases of the disease.