Don Lalonde needs little introduction and has also had successful Walant surgery!

He is the foremost advocate of Walant surgery in the world and undoubtedly if you are visiting this site, you will have heard his name or heard him speak.

Don is a Professor of Surgery at Dalhousie University in New Brunswick, Canada and is the most published surgeon globally in the subspecialty area of Walant. He is ex-president of the American Association of Hand Surgery, The Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons and Past Chairman of the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

My name is Ali Phillips and I have had Walant surgery! I am an orthopaedic hand surgeon working at the Major Trauma Centre in Southampton, UK. I trained in Devon & Cornwall and then did fellowships in Derby and Southampton. I also went to see Don in Canada on a travelling fellowship in 2014 and Earl Campbell in Calgary in 2015, both to learn more about Walant. I saw Don talk to the British Society of Surgery of the Hand in 2011 and, like many of you reading this, was inspired to take up Walant! I contributed to his definitive book - Wide Awake Hand Surgery and have been his mentee and friend ever since.

I also think that Walant has so many more benefits than drawbacks that, while I had some time on my hands (see the video of my own Walant (sagittal band repair) surgery here), I thought I'd build this site to make it as easy as possible for surgeons and therapists to join the Walant community.

My research interests centre on Walant, patient flow and designing pathways and systems with the patient at the centre.

My name is Giovanna Petrella. I’m a Plastic Surgeon. I completed my medical studies at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy.

I currently work in Hand and Microsurgery Unit because microsurgery is my passion.

In October 2016 I went to Canada to learn from Dr Lalonde all his tips and tricks about Walant. It only took me two weeks to became crazy for Walant.

Like everyone, I want the best for my patients and Walant allows me to achieve those great results. I can see active movements before skin closure and I can adjust anything before the end of my surgery. I can spend a lot of time talking with patients about the surgery and explain post-operative rehabilitation.

When I show the result of the operation to the patients at the end of surgery….every day I think “this is the best job in the world” because Walant gives me the confidence to say it!

Wide Awake is for smart surgeons. Be smart and join us!

I am a lecturer and orthopaedic surgeon in International Medical University, Seremban, Malaysia. I was trained in National University of Malaysia and currently pursuing my hand and microsurgery fellowship in Singapore. I first met Don Lalonde in Seattle for the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH) meeting in 2015 and since then I have been hooked on Walant.

It enhances my practice in such a way that most of my upper limb surgeries below the elbow are now done under Walant. This includes bony procedures such as plating both the radius and ulna. 

My research interest is to expand the usage on Walant on cases proximal to the wrist as I believe the benefit of Walant goes beyond the hand surgery community.

Anthony Parrino completed his Orthopaedic Hand & Upper Extremity Surgery Fellowship at the University of Rochester, NY after Residency in Connecticut. He is now Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCONN Health. Here he has implemented Walant with great success.

Anthony has embraced Walant whole-heartedly after being exposed to the technique on his Fellowship and is now expanding his practice enormously, performing Walant at every opportunity; "Over the past year the number of procedures we perform has increased significantly with patients having expedited recoveries. We have been able to bring this wonderful technique to central Connecticut, and numbers continue to increase as word spreads".

Dr. Peter Rhee is currently a hand and microvascular surgeon within the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He holds academic appointment as an Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery through the

Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Associate Professor of Surgery through the F. Edward Hebert School of medicine. Dr. Rhee graduated as Valedictorian of his medical school class at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine (Kirksville, MO).

He then served in the United States Air Force as the Chief of Hand and Microvascular Surgery at the San Antonio Military Medical Center (Fort Sam Houston, TX) from 2013 until 2017. He participated on 2 deployments to the Dominican Republic and to Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan. He was awarded the

Meritorious Service Medal for his contributions to patient care both in San Antonio and in Afghanistan. He separated from the U.S. Air Force in August 2017.

Dr. Rhee has presented over 60 regional, national, and international presentations, has authored 43 peer-reviewed articles, 2 editorials, and 5 book chapters. He also serves on 8 committees for the American Society for Surgery of the Hand and 1 committee for the American Association for Hand Surgery. Dr. Rhee is a reviewer for the Journal of Hand Surgery America, American Journal of Orthopedics, Journal

of Clinical Biomechanics, and Hand Surgery.

He is married to Laura Susan Rhee who is a Hospice and Palliative Care physician at

the Mayo Clinic. They have 3 children, William (5 years old) and Maddie (4 years old), and the latest, Katherine, only 1 month old!

My name is Samuel Ribak.

I have orthopedic trained, and I completed my residence in the Hospital das Clinicas of the University of São Paulo, one of the best in Brazil.

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Early on, I became interested in hand surgery and continued the specialisation by doing master's degree with the title: "use of Chinese fascial flaps". After this period, I was invited to be head of a group of hand surgery of the Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, where I was able to do a doctorate with the comparative study of 86 cases of vascularized graft and non-vascularized for the treatment of pseudoarthrosis of the scaphoid.

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I also created a service accredited by the Brazilian Society of Hand Surgery, a society that today has 700 full members. Today we are in the twelfth class of residents, with the honour of never having a resident who failed the exam.

I have two children, already post university and my favourite sport is tennis.

With regard to Walant, we discovered the fantastic range of options of its use after the coming of Dr Lalonde to Brazil, the first time in 2012, and the second in 2017 where he   captivated and convinced many of my colleagues in our society. Since first coming here, we have started to carry out Walant, and in several congresses we have had presentations showing our experience culminating in publication in the largest orthopaedic journal  in Brazil: the Brazilian Journal of Orthopaedics. 

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Today we are preparing a new article to be published. 

And we will continue more and more, as the saying goes: "To keep a lamp burning, we need to keep putting oil on it."