Review of treatment results for Kienbock's disease

A review of the literature reveals that Kienbock's disease has been treated in many different ways. Excision of the lunate, with or without replacement arthroplasty, and joint-leveling procedures (radial shortening or ulnar lengthening) are the most popular procedures, but other methods of treatment (nonoperative, wrist denervation, lunate revascularization, intercarpal arthrodesis and proximal-row carpectomy) have also been performed. Based on our current understanding of the etiology, a joint-leveling procedure seems to make the most sense when surgery is indicated. However, other procedures have yielded a high success rate as well.