Anatomical variations of the extensor pollicis brevis tendon and abductor pollicis longus tendon--relation to tenosynovectomy.

Sufficient improvement in De Quervain disease, is not always archieved even by tenosynovectomy, and the reason for this appears to be anatomical variation in the first extensor compartment of the hand. In this study we examined the first extensor compartment of 159 hands of 80 human cadavers. Hiranuma and colleagues documented four anatomical types of first compartment, and in this study type A was observed in 76 (47.8%) of the 159 hands, type B in 49 (30.8%), and type C in 21 (13.2%). No type D compartments in which the extensor pollicis brevis tendon is absent, were observed. There were 13 hands that did not fit any of Hiranuma's categories, and we classified them into three new types: E, F, and G. The numbers of extensor pollicis brevis tendons in the first compartment varied from one to three, and the number of abductor pollicis longus tendons varied from one to seven. Successful tenosynovectomy in the treatment of De Quervain disease requires to pay close attention to accessory tendons of the extensor pollicis brevis tendon and abductor pollicis longus tendon, branching of the tendons, and the presence of an atypical septum in the first compartment.