Expert list · Last reviewed April 17, 2026
Best Hand and Upper Extremity Specialists in Texas
Find top hand and upper extremity specialists in Texas. Houston, Dallas, and Austin surgeons with deep training in wrist, elbow, and nerve care.
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Texas has a deep bench of hand and upper extremity specialists, and the best ones sit at high-volume teaching hospitals in Houston, Dallas, and Austin. Here is where to start if you need a surgeon for your wrist, elbow, or hand.
Hand and upper extremity surgery is a subspecialty that sits between orthopaedics and plastic surgery. The surgeons in this list trained specifically on the wrist, elbow, hand, and the nerves that run through them. Most practice at academic or trauma-center hospitals where they see a steady flow of complex fractures, nerve injuries, rotator cuff disease, and revision cases that community surgeons refer in.
Dr. Jafarnia practices hand and upper extremity surgery at Houston Methodist Hospital and Houston Methodist West. His clinical interests include wrist conditions like Kienböck's disease (a loss of blood supply to a small wrist bone), forearm nonunions (fractures that fail to heal), tennis elbow, and compressive nerve problems. His 2000 paper in The Journal of Hand Surgery on grading Kienböck's disease 1 and his 2004 study in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery on rebuilding forearms with bone graft 2 are still cited by surgeons planning similar cases.
Dr. Mezera is a hand and upper extremity surgeon based in Dallas with privileges across Holland Hospital, CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, and INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center. She treats the common conditions most patients come in with — carpal tunnel, trigger finger, thumb arthritis, and wrist fractures — along with more involved reconstructive work. Patients in Dallas and the surrounding region who want a surgeon with a broad hospital network often land with her.
Evan Collins, M.D.
Chief, Hand and Upper Extremity Center, Houston Methodist Hospital
Houston Methodist Hospital
View specialist profileDr. Collins is Chief of the Hand and Upper Extremity Center at Houston Methodist Hospital. Running a dedicated hand center means he anchors a team that handles the system's hardest wrist, elbow, and shoulder cases, including revisions and injuries other surgeons refer in. He also operates at Houston Methodist West. If you have a complex or previously operated hand or upper extremity problem and want a center-level second opinion in Texas, his group is a reasonable starting point.
Dr. Siff is a hand and upper extremity surgeon in the Houston Methodist system, with practice locations at the main Texas Medical Center hospital, Houston Methodist West, and Houston Methodist The Woodlands. The multi-campus setup helps patients who want academic-level surgical care but prefer follow-up visits closer to home in west Houston or north of the city. He handles the full range of wrist, elbow, and hand conditions.
Dr. Hardy operates at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin and Dell Seton Medical Center, which is Austin's Level I trauma center and the teaching hospital for Dell Medical School at UT Austin. Trauma-center surgeons see more severe hand and wrist injuries than most, including crush injuries, open fractures, and cases that need microsurgical repair. For Central Texas patients with a significant hand injury, Dell Seton is one of the natural referral points.
Dr. Budoff practices hand, wrist, elbow, and shoulder surgery in Houston, with operating privileges at HCA Houston Healthcare Kingwood, CHI St. Luke's Health Memorial Livingston, and OakBend Medical Center. He is also one of the more widely published upper extremity surgeons in Texas. His 1998 long-term follow-up study on debriding partial-thickness rotator cuff tears without acromioplasty 3 helped push the field to question a procedure that had been nearly automatic, and his 2008 paper on treating acute lunate and perilunate wrist dislocations 4 is still a reference point for surgeons seeing these rare but severe injuries.
What to look for in a hand and upper extremity specialist
- Board certification in orthopaedic surgery or plastic surgery, plus a Certificate of Added Qualification (CAQ) in Surgery of the Hand
- Fellowship training specifically in hand and upper extremity surgery
- Hospital affiliation with a teaching hospital or a regional trauma center
- A clinical focus that matches your condition — nerve, wrist, elbow, or sports-related
- Wait time and whether they're accepting new patients
- Insurance compatibility and whether they operate at a hospital in your plan's network
Questions to ask before your first appointment
- How many patients with my condition do you treat each year?
- Is surgery the first option, or should I try a non-surgical plan first?
- What outcomes do you typically see with this procedure, and what are the main risks?
- Will you be the surgeon operating, or will a fellow or resident?
- What does recovery look like week by week, and when can I return to work or sport?
- Do you work with a certified hand therapist for rehab?
The bottom line
Texas patients have strong options for hand and upper extremity care, with most of the deepest benches in Houston and Austin's academic and trauma-center hospitals. If your case is routine, any of the surgeons above can handle it. If your case is complex — a failed prior surgery, a nerve injury, or a wrist reconstruction — start with a hand and upper extremity center or a trauma-center surgeon, and ask your primary care doctor or orthopaedist for a direct referral.
Sources
1 Jafarnia K, et al. Reliability of the Lichtman classification of Kienböck's disease. The Journal of Hand Surgery, 2000.
2 Ring D, Jafarnia K, et al. Ununited Diaphyseal Forearm Fractures with Segmental Defects: Plate Fixation and Autogenous Cancellous Bone-Grafting. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 2004.
3 Budoff JE, Nirschl RP, Guidi EJ. Debridement of Partial-Thickness Tears of the Rotator Cuff without Acromioplasty. Long-Term Follow-up and Review of the Literature. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 1998.
4 Budoff JE. Treatment of Acute Lunate and Perilunate Dislocations. The Journal of Hand Surgery, 2008.
Sources
- 1.Ununited Diaphyseal Forearm Fractures with Segmental Defects: Plate Fixation and Autogenous Cancellous Bone-Grafting — Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 2004. DOI
- 2.Reliability of the Lichtman classification of Kienböck's disease — The Journal Of Hand Surgery, 2000. DOI
- 3.A clinical study of extracorporeal shock waves (ESW) for treatment of chronic lateral epicondylitis — Current Orthopaedic Practice, 2011. DOI
- 4.
- 5.Hereditary Neuropathy With Liability to Pressure Palsies — Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 2001. DOI
- 6.Current Concepts Review - Débridement of Partial-Thickness Tears of the Rotator Cuff without Acromioplasty. Long-Term Follow-up and Review of the Literature* — Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 1998. DOI
- 7.The Effect of Anterosuperior Rotator Cuff Tears on Glenohumeral Translation — Arthroscopy The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery, 2008. DOI
- 8.Comminuted olecranon fractures: A comparison of plating methods — Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, 2006. DOI
- 9.
- 10.The Effect of Coracoacromial Ligament Excision and Acromioplasty on Superior and Anterosuperior Glenohumeral Stability — Arthroscopy The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery, 2008. DOI
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