Hand therapy after surgery
Hand Therapy After Surgery in Singapore
Written by Mavis Tham, Shamaine Soh and Yuna Zhuang, Principal Hand Occupational Therapists at Phoenix Rehab.Clinically reviewed by Nurul Nadzirah, Principal Hand Occupational Therapist, AHPC A1600378F.Last reviewed 28 September 2026.
Your surgeon repaired the structure. Whether the hand works again is decided in the weeks after, and finger joints stiffen faster than any other joint in the body.
One 45-minute appointment, $230, nett, no GST. Treatment starts in it. No doctor’s referral needed.
Reviewed by Shamaine Soh
Principal Hand Occupational Therapist, Phoenix Rehab · AHPC A1302343D
Shamaine’s clinical interest is the stiffness, scar tightness and adhesions that follow hand surgery, which is the part of recovery most people are not warned about. Meet the hand therapy team.
Last reviewed: pending clinician sign-off
What actually limits the hand after surgery
Almost nobody comes to us because the wound has not healed. They come because the hand will not do what it used to.
Three things cause that, and none of them is the surgery:
Joints that stopped moving
Finger joints tighten faster than any other joint in the body. A few weeks of protection is often necessary. The tightness that follows is real, and it takes deliberate work to reverse.
Scar that sticks
Tendons are meant to glide. When scar tissue tethers them to the tissue around them, the finger bends less than the joint itself would allow. The joint is fine. The glide is not.
A hand you have stopped using
After weeks of guarding, the hand drops out of your habits and grip strength follows. Most people do not notice until they try to open a jar or hold a full kettle.
That is the work hand therapy is for, and it starts at the point your surgeon’s protocol allows.
How recovery is run
4-Stage Structured Recovery
Every plan at Phoenix runs on the Phoenix Recovery Protocol: four stages, with measurable criteria to move between them. After hand surgery that means range measured in degrees and grip measured in kilograms against your other hand at each review, so progress is a number rather than an impression.
Calm & Protect
Settling swelling is work, not rest. Protect the repair and move only where the protocol permits.
Move & Mobilize
Controlled movement to keep tendons gliding and joints from tightening. Trained, not waited for.
Rebuild & Strengthen
Grip and forearm strength loaded progressively, and scar work where it is limiting glide.
Return & Perform
Typing, cooking, lifting, gripping, tools, sport. Tested against your other hand.
None of the four stages is passive. Every one is trained, and every one has criteria you have to meet before you leave it. That is Criteria Before Clearance: you move up when the measures say so, not when a number of weeks has passed. How the Protocol works →
Bring your paperwork
We work to your surgeon’s protocol, not a generic one
A flexor tendon repair, a plated wrist fracture and a trigger finger release each have different rules about what may move, when, and how much. Too early risks the repair. Too late costs movement that is harder to get back.
So the first thing we ask for is your operation note, discharge summary or referral letter. If your surgeon has specified a protocol, we follow it. If they have not, we contact them.
Send us your operation note or scan report
We will tell you what it means for your rehabilitation, when therapy should start, and roughly how long it usually takes. No appointment needed to ask.
We explain what the report means for your recovery and timeframe. We do not diagnose from documents. That needs an assessment.
Operations we rehabilitate
Surgery we see every week
Each of these runs Stages 1 to 4 of the Protocol with its own criteria and its own timeline. The Wrist Fracture Recovery Program is the first written up in full, and the rest are listed on the programs index. If your operation is not on this list, send us the name of it.
What recovery looks like
The shape of it, week by week
Every protocol differs and your surgeon’s takes precedence. This is the pattern most hand surgeries follow, so you know roughly where you are.
- Week 1 to 2, Stage 1Swelling control, a splint if you need one, and movement only where your surgeon permits it. Often the most useful thing we do here is stop you doing too much.
- Week 2 to 6, Stage 2Controlled movement to keep tendons gliding and joints from tightening. This is the window that most influences the range you end up with.
- Week 6 to 12, Stage 3Strength and grip. Scar work where it is limiting glide. You start using the hand for real tasks rather than exercises.
- Beyond 12 weeks, Stage 4Typing, cooking, lifting, gripping, sport. The point at which the hand stops being something you think about.
If it is not going to plan
Weeks past the operation and the hand has stopped changing
The finger that bends but will not straighten. The wrist that is fine until you turn a key. The hand that was improving every week and then stopped, somewhere around week six, and has been the same ever since.
This is the most common reason people come to us, and it is a different problem from early post-surgical rehabilitation. The first job is not treatment. It is finding out what is measurably missing, and then whether it moves.
Stalled Recovery Review
Three appointments, one a week for three weeks, with a Principal Hand Occupational Therapist. Range in degrees and grip in kilograms measured three times, a review of your operation note and what has been done so far, and an honest written answer on what is measurably available from here.
Three weeks rather than one long visit, because a stiff hand cannot take ninety minutes of work in one sitting, and because what you want to know is what changes between appointments. A joint measured once is a number. Measured again after a week of the right work, it is an answer.
$690, being three 45-minute appointments at $230, booked as a block with the same therapist.
Stiffness that has been there six months takes longer to shift than stiffness at six weeks. That is a reason to have it measured now rather than a reason to leave it.
Who you will see
Hand and wrist cases are managed by our hand therapy team
Our hand therapists are AHPC-registered occupational therapists whose declared clinical interest is the hand, wrist and elbow. You are matched to the one who treats your problem most often, and you stay with them, because measuring range and grip over time depends on the same hands measuring it.
Mavis Tham
Principal Hand Occupational Therapist · AHPC A1800276C
Wrist fractures, TFCC and wrist ligament injuries, finger fractures, custom thermoplastic splinting. Around 250 wrist fractures since 2018.
Tanjong Pagar
Shamaine Soh
Principal Hand Occupational Therapist · AHPC A1302343D
Stiffness, scar tightness and adhesions after hand or wrist surgery. Hand and finger fractures, finger ligament repairs. Practising hand therapy since 2015.
Orchard, Sundays
Yuna Zhuang
Principal Hand Occupational Therapist · AHPC A1700999G
Carpal and cubital tunnel, TFCC, tennis elbow, and the wrist and finger injuries of climbers and racquet players. Custom splinting.
Orchard, Serangoon, Tampines
Nurul Nadzirah
Principal Hand Occupational Therapist · AHPC A1600378F
Finger and wrist fractures, De Quervain’s, wrist ligament injuries. Over 500 mothers treated for De Quervain’s.
Orchard
Splints molded here, in the appointment
Post-surgical hands often need a splint shaped to that hand, sometimes holding one joint still while another keeps moving. We make them in the clinic rather than ordering them in.
We write to your surgeon
For surgeon-referred patients we send a one-page report at weeks 2, 6 and 12 with the stage, the measures and the next criteria. If a protocol is unclear we go back to the surgeon rather than guessing. You should not be the messenger.
What it costs
One price, stated once
Assessment & Treatment
One standard 45-minute hand therapy appointment, nett, no GST. Most of it is treatment. We work out what is actually limiting the hand, and then we treat it, in the same appointment. You do not pay for a consultation and come back another day to be treated.
- Hands-on treatment from the first appointment: joint mobilization, scar and soft tissue work, tendon gliding, and a splint molded there and then if you need one
- A review of your operation note and your surgeon’s protocol
- Range measured in degrees and grip in kilograms, both hands
- A stage diagnosis against the four stages
- A written plan and a home program you walk out holding
- Your next review dated into the diary with the same therapist
After that your therapist dates each stage review into the diary, so you know what the program involves before you commit to anything. Every post-surgical hand program is 12 appointments at $230 each, $2,760 in all, paid as you attend.
No packages and no discounts for booking a course.
Splint materials are charged separately where a splint is made. We tell you the cost before we make it.
Questions we get asked
Do I get treated at the first appointment, or only assessed?
Treated. Most of the 45 minutes is treatment. We work out what is limiting the hand and start on it in the same appointment, which usually means joint mobilization, scar and soft tissue work, tendon gliding, and a splint if you need one. The assessment keeps running while we treat, because how the tissue responds tells us as much as any single measurement.
When should I start after surgery?
Often sooner than people expect, and your surgeon’s protocol decides it. Some repairs begin controlled movement within days; others need a period of full protection first. Send us the operation note and we will tell you what applies to yours.
Do I need my surgeon to refer me?
No. You can book directly. We will still want the operation note or discharge summary so we work to the right protocol, and we will contact your surgeon if anything needs clarifying.
How many appointments will I need?
Every program is 12 appointments, $2,760 in all, and you pay for each one as you attend it rather than buying a package first. If you need more, your therapist shows you which stage criteria are still open, and each extra appointment is $230. Every appointment is $230.
Can I claim this on insurance?
Many of our post-surgical patients do, particularly where the claim is tied to the operation. It depends on your policy. Send us your policy details on WhatsApp and we will tell you what applies before you book.
My surgery was months ago and it is still stiff.
Have it measured. Late is harder than early, and we will be honest with you about what is realistically available from here, but a hand that stopped improving is not always finished improving. The Stalled Recovery Review exists for exactly this. Bring the operation note.
Will I need a splint, and is it extra?
Some post-surgical hands need one, many do not. If yours does, it is molded to your hand in the appointment and charged separately. We tell you before we make it.
Will I see the same therapist each time?
Yes, that is how we schedule it. Measuring range and grip over time only means something if the same person is taking the measurements.
Had an injection rather than an operation? Cortisone, PRP or hyaluronic acid turns the pain down without changing why it started. See physiotherapy after an injection.
Where we are
Clinics across Singapore
JURONG EAST
2 Venture Drive #02-02
Vision Exchange
Singapore 608526
Opening 20 October 2026
WhatsApp 8242 7340For doctors and surgeons
Sending us a patient
Hand, wrist and elbow cases after surgery are managed by the hand therapy team, and custom thermoplastic splints are molded in the appointment rather than ordered in. If you are referring, send us the referral letter or the operation note and we will tell you which stage the patient starts at and roughly how many appointments that stage needs. Custom splints and braces are made on site, and the stages themselves are set out in the Phoenix Recovery Protocol.
Tell us what was operated on
Send the operation note, the discharge summary, or just the name of the surgery and roughly when it was. We will tell you when rehabilitation should start and what it involves.
Timelines on this page are typical ranges and your surgeon’s protocol takes precedence. Every figure and week highlighted requires clinician verification before publication. Hand therapists assess, treat, splint, exercise, educate and refer; doctors diagnose, inject, prescribe and order imaging. If we find something that needs medical review we refer you back to your surgeon.
Programs run at all five clinics
Hand therapy recovery programs
Each program runs Stages 1 to 4 of the Phoenix Recovery Protocol. Every appointment is one to one with a hand therapist, 45 minutes, $230 nett, no GST.
- Mallet Finger Recovery Program. The fingertip tendon heals long if the joint bends during splinting. Continuity is the treatment.
- Cubital Tunnel Recovery Program. Ulnar nerve at the elbow, conservative and post surgical. What recovers and what does not.
- Dupuytren’s Contracture Recovery Program. After fasciectomy or needle release. The splint holds the correction while the tissue accepts it.
- Scaphoid Fracture Recovery Program. Long immobilization, predictable stiffness. Range and grip trained back and measured.
- Finger and Metacarpal Fracture Recovery Program. The bone is the straightforward part. The safe splinting position decides the rest.
- Stiff Finger Joint Recovery Program. A finger that will not bend or straighten after a fracture, dislocation or splint.
- Digital Nerve Repair Recovery Program. About a millimetre a day. Protective sensation, sensory re education and the safety measures in between.
- Flexor Tendon Repair Recovery Program. Two ways to fail, pull apart or stick down. The first twelve weeks trade between them.
Also built on their own condition pages: distal radius and wrist fracture, carpal tunnel, trigger finger, De Quervain, thumb base arthritis and trapeziectomy, TFCC and wrist arthroscopy and extensor tendon injury.
Not sure which one you are? The Stalled Recovery Review is for a recovery that has stopped moving.
The hand therapy programs we run
Hand and wrist cases are managed by our hand therapy team. Each program starts with one Assessment and Treatment, a single 45-minute appointment at $230 nett, no GST, and runs the same four stages afterwards.
Flexor Tendon Repair Recovery Program
The repair can pull apart or it can stick down. Everything in the first twelve weeks is a trade between those two.
Stages 1 to 4
Wrist Fracture Recovery Program
Distal radius and scaphoid fractures, and the wrist that came out of a cast stiff.
Stages 1 to 4
Carpal Tunnel Program
Conservative and after release, including what does not come back if severe compression is left, and when to see a doctor first.
Stages 1 to 4
Extensor Tendon and Mallet Finger Program
Six to eight weeks of continuous splinting, done properly. Started late or interrupted, the droop is usually permanent.
Stages 1 to 4
Trigger Finger Program
The catching is the easy part. The stiff middle joint left behind is not.
Stages 1 to 4
Thumb Base Arthritis Program
Splint, joint protection and graded pinch, or rehabilitation after trapeziectomy.
Stages 1 to 4
De Quervain Tenosynovitis Program
Tendons quieten in a splint and stay quiet only if they are loaded back.
Stages 1 to 4
TFCC and Wrist Arthroscopy Recovery Program
The ulnar side of the wrist is the slowest to settle and the most often rushed.
Stages 1 to 4
Stalled Recovery Review
Three appointments over three weeks with the same hand therapist, for a hand that stopped improving. $690.
Stages 1 to 4
Every one of these runs the same four stages. The Phoenix Recovery Protocol sets out what each stage works on and what you have to meet to move up. The full list is on the programs page. No referral needed to start.
What our patients say
Google reviews from our clinics in Singapore.
