Dr. Mark E. Pruzansky
Dr. Mark E. Pruzansky, Director of HandSport Surgery Institute, is a seasoned specialist in hand surgery, wrist surgery and microsurgery, sports injuries and arthroscopic and reconstructive surgery of the hand, wrist, elbow and brachial plexus. With more than 20 years of high-level practice and a comprehensive knowledge of the body’s biomechanical linkages, Dr. Pruzansky is able to diagnose patients using a “kinetic-chain approach” that reveals underlying—and often overlooked—issues coming from other parts of the musculo-skeletal system.
With three board certifications in Surgery of the Hand, Orthopaedic Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Surgery (1.4% of hand surgeons worldwide, January, 2023), Dr. Pruzansky is uniquely able to diagnose and treat hand and upper extremity conditions that are specific to elite and amateur athletes in addition to those afflicting almost everyone in any occupation, including retirement. One of the country’s most experienced practitioners of Endoscopic Carpal Tunnel Release Surgery—over 3000 cases—and a pioneer in the treatment of Tennis Elbow, Dr. Pruzansky is dedicated to the delivery of state-of-the art surgical and medical treatment as well as supervising the patient’s occupational and physical therapy. His research includes the Trigger Digit, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and de Quervain’s Disease: Co-existence, Gender, and Age Distribution in a Surgical Cohort. His expertise in solving difficult problems of the hand, wrist and upper extremity is often sought, and he has been a hand surgery consultant to WABC-TV with appearances on Eyewitness News. Complex reconstructions, including Revision Surgery, are referred to the practice for evaluation and treatment.
Dr. Pruzansky graduated with honors from both Columbia College and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Orthopaedic Program in New York. He was a Hand Surgery Fellow in San Francisco, where he was certified in microsurgery and studied under one of the country’s most renowned pioneers of joint replacements for arthritic fingers and wrists.
While a Hand Surgery Fellow in New Orleans, Dr. Pruzansky studied with one of the fathers of adult reconstructive hand and wrist surgery, who was also a founder of congenital deformities surgery. He then furthered his studies in sports medicine and treatment of sports-related injuries of the hand and upper extremity at the Southern California Orthopaedic Institute in Van Nuys.
In addition to being the director of the HandSport® Surgery Institute, Dr. Pruzansky is affiliated with Mount Sinai Medical Center and Medical School and Lenox Hill Hospital, where he is currently an Attending Surgeon. He is a faculty lecturer at Mount Sinai Medical Center and has spoken on the national and regional levels to medical students, residents and physicians. Also to his credit, Dr. Pruzansky is a leading research fundraiser and a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand, the New York Society for Surgery of the Hand and the Orthopaedic Research Society.
Dr. Pruzansky has published numerous articles on hand surgery and sports medicine in scientific journals and textbooks and is renowned for his clinical research, teaching and pioneering of web-based patient education. An athlete himself, he plays tennis and golf, downhill skis, does cardio, and lifts. Cited in Best Doctors, New York magazine under Hand Surgery, Dr. Pruzansky provides patients with innovative diagnostic and surgical techniques as well as respect and compassion.