Sidney Crosby has wrist surgery

The Penguins announced today that captain Sidney Crosby has underwent a surgical procedure on his wrist.

From the team:

Crosby had arthroscopic wrist debridement surgery on Monday, August 31. The surgery was performed by Dr. Robert Hotchkiss of Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, in collaboration with team physician Dr. Dharmesh Vyas and UPMC hand and upper extremity surgery.

Recovery time is expected to be three-to-four weeks.

It’s been a season of surgery for Crosby, who had to have his core repaired in mid-November. That cost him over two months of the season with the recovery and rehab lasting into January.

It’s unknown if this was the issue that forced Crosby to miss a week’s worth of practice in July as the team ramped up for the playoffs. Crosby played all four of the Penguins’ playoff games, recording two goals and one assist. However, in the final two games, he only had one assist and four total shots on goals. Crosby was quiet, much like the rest of the team which bowed out without much of a fight.

The good news is a 3-4 week recovery time speaks to there not being major damage or a super serious repair needing to be done, though certainly any time and athlete goes under the knife it is not an ideal situation.

Being a Penguin fan means you get to learn about lots of medical procedures and I think “wrist debridement surgery” is a new one. Here’s what information mercy.com has on it, if you’re interested..

Arthroscopic debridement is a procedure that lets doctors see inside your wrist and hand joints through small incisions. The doctor uses a camera to navigate through the joint. They remove debris and irritants in the joints to reduce pain and inflammation. Arthroscopic debridement is common for knees and shoulders. The wrist is the third most common joint to have this procedure.

With arthroscopy, the doctor only has to make a small incision over the joint. That means the recovery time is shorter than with an open surgery. Arthroscopic debridement doesn’t affect your soft tissues as much. You may have less pain, swelling and stiffness in your hands and wrists as you recover.

Your doctor may perform arthroscopic debridement in an outpatient setting. You can go home the same day that you have your procedure. The doctor administers either general or local anesthesia so that you won’t feel any pain. You may or may not be fully asleep.

The doctor starts by making a small incision in the back of your wrist to insert the camera. It projects images from inside your wrist onto a television screen. That way, the doctor can see your joint clearly. Your doctor makes several other small incisions to insert the rest of the surgery tools. The doctor cleans out any damaged tissues from the joint. The procedure takes about 45 minutes to an hour.

The 2020-21 NHL regular season is tentatively scheduled to start in December, so this issue getting taken care or now should still allow Crosby some time for off-season training to gear up for the next season.