Musicians' return to playing instruments following hand surgery

I read with interest the article in the September issue by Butler and Winspur ¹ about musicians' return to playing their instruments following hand surgery, but was left wondering whether the researchers came across any variant anatomy contributing to the disorders. Variant anatomy recognized during surgery provides a framework for reviewing common morphology, embryogenesis, and potential medical and surgical implications to reinforce the concept of patient individuality for the individualization of medical and surgical therapies. ²

An example of these variations, normal rather than abnormal, is the incidence of separate osseofibrous compartments for the two main tendons (EPB and APL) or for their accessory tendons in de Quervain's disease. ³ Decompression of the main fibro-osseus canal may not relieve the symptoms of the disease if an accessory tendon remains unrecognized and is left compressed in its own fibrous canal. ⁴ Likewise an accurate injection into both the EPB and APL tendon sheaths by the two-point injection method may be more effective for de Quervain's disease rather than the techniques that do not take the anatomical variation into consideration. ⁵

I would be interested in knowing if they came across any variants and if not, I suggest that future research documents such findings for teaching a very important concept in anatomy that may affect function, as in musicians' hands.