International Faculty

Jonathan Hobby - Course Chair
Basingstoke, UK

Mr Jonathan Hobby is a consultant Hand & Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Hampshire Hospitals NHS FT. He is the honorary secretary of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand. He graduated from St. Thomas's Hospital in 1989 and did his postgraduate training on the St Bartholomew's surgical rotation and Cambridge Orthopaedic rotation. He completed an MD thesis on the clinical effectiveness of MRI of the wrist and was awarded a Hunterian Professorship by the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2001. He was awarded the Graham Stack travelling fellowship in 2009 and was an ASSH international travelling fellow in 2010. He has served on the BSSH council, chaired the BSSH research and audit committee, and was chair of the BSSH Instructional courses for series seven. His research interests include wrist imaging, hand outcome measures, small joint arthroplasty and the influence of psychological factors on hand surgery.

Balazs Lenkei - Course Co-chair
Miskolc, Hungary

President of the Hungarian Hand Surgery Society, Associate Head of the Trauma and Hand Surgery Department in the BAZ County Teaching Hospital, Director of TritonLife Debrecen Private Hospital, AO Hungary National Faculty Member, Examiner in the FESSH Examination Committee, Examiner in the Hungarian National Hand Surgery training program, Examiner in the Hungarian National Traumatology training program.
I started working in 2003. Right now, I am the associate leader of a trauma and hand surgery center in Miskolc, Hungary. In everyday life this is the biggest part of my professional activity. I deal with managing the daily issues of the unit a lot and take part in the outpatient care, operative activity, and duty system as well. My interest in upper extremity injuries and disorders is accepted in our unit so I operate mainly these patients, but as a trauma surgeon sometimes I need to fix ankle or hip fractures as well. I enjoy participating in teaching of the younger colleagues, this way I got to be a national faculty member in the AO group. Since 2019. I am an examiner in the FESSH examination committee. The group of this committee consists of wonderful people. The meetings and examinations are very fruitful for me. Being the director of a private hospital is kind of new to me, but I enjoy it as it gives a lot of success experience.

Duncan Avis
Basingstoke, UK

I graduated with Honours from the University of Bristol Medical School in 2004 having first completed a degree in Archaeology. My general surgical training, including academic teaching and research roles, was undertaken in Bristol, the South West and South Wales.
I subsequently moved to the Wessex region for my specialist orthopaedic training, during which time I completed an MSc in Trauma Surgery. Following completion of this, and award of the FRCS Trauma & Orthopaedics examination, I spent a year on the prestigious British Society for Surgery of The Hand (BSSH) Fellowship at the Queen Elizabeth and Royal Orthopaedic Hospitals in Birmingham. This allowed me to work and study all aspects of hand surgery in an internationally renowned centre. I am one of a minority of Hand Surgeons who have been awarded the British Diploma in Hand surgery and as such I am knowledgeable of the most up to date evidence and surgical techniques on which I base my decision making.
I am interested in all aspects of hand and upper limb surgery, with a particular interest in wrist surgery and trauma.
I was appointed as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke in July 2017 where I practice as a hand and upper limb surgeon.
I am a member of the British Orthopaedic Association and an Associate Member of the BSSH.

Inga Besmens
Zurich, Switzerland

Inga Besmens is a fellow of both the European Board of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery as well as the European Board of Hand Surgery.
She has a Master's Degree in Reconstructive Microsurgery and is head of hand surgery in the department of plastic surgery and hand surgery at the university hospital Zurich. Her clinical and research interest focus on reconstructive hand surgery, including peripheral nerve surgery as well as outcome research.
In 2017 she co-founded YEHS- Young European Handsurgeons, the young group of the FESSH and soon after became the groups first elected president until 2020. She has been active in organizing conferences and educational course on a national as well as international level.

Nicolas Bigorre
Angers, France

Nicolas Bigorre is a consultant at the Hand Trauma Center in Angers, where he also resided in orthopaedics before specialising in hand surgery from 2012.
In addition to his engagement in the training of hand surgery residents at his home university, he has held the position of co-director of the microsurgery diploma in Angers since 2019. On a national level, he was elected Secretary General of the French College of Hand Surgery in 2022. In this role, he works to improve the teaching of this specialty to align standards with those of the EBSH, from which he graduated in 2015. He has also been a consultant member of the Société Française de Chirurgie de la Main since 2022.
His research focuses mainly on traumatology of the hand, trapeziometacarpal join osteoarthritis and neurological canal syndromes and amyloidosis.

Dean Boyce
Swansea, UK

Dean Boyce is Clinical Director of the Welsh Hand & Peripheral Nerve Surgery and the Welsh Centre for Plastic Surgery & Burns. He was appointed in 2003 after training in South Wales, the West Midlands, Manchester, Wrightington, and Sydney, Australia. He has a strong academic background, having been awarded a Hunterian Professorship for research into human and foetal scarless wound healing. His current research areas mirror his clinical interests in peripheral nerve & brachial plexus surgery, congenital hand surgery, upper limb cerebral palsy and Dupuytren's disease. He is heavily involved in postgraduate training as selection lead for the UK ATP Fellowships in Hand Surgery and as past Chair of Education & Training for the British Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. He is the Immediate Past President of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand, and a Council Member of the British Association for Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery.

Maurizio Calcagni
Zürich, Switzerland

Mr Calcagni is a specialist in Hand Surgery, FMH, and a specialist in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, FMH. He is presently Vice-Chairman Div. of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery, University Hospital Zurich, Secretary General of the FESSH (2017-2020) and Past-President of the Swiss Society for Hand Surgery (2020-2022). He has 100 publications in indexed journals, 30 non indexed journals and 23 book chapters. He is teaching at University of Milan, University of Zurich, he is chairman of the Handflaps Course and Tendon Suture Course (Zurich) and is frequently invited speaker at many national and international Courses

Ilse Degreef
Leuven, Belgium

Ilse Degreef is an orthopedic surgeon specialized in hand surgery, affiliated to Leuven University Hospitals in Leuven where she is full time staff member since 2003, surgeon-in-chief and appointed full professor of orthopedics & hand surgery at Leuven University KUL, Belgium. She is board member and president elect of the Belgian Hand Group (presidency 2022-2024). She has well over 100 peer reviewed publications on hand surgery, authored many book chapters and is a frequently invited speaker on international hand surgery meetings. She is the coordinator of the Belgian Hand Surgery Certificate, which is a National Post-academic Interuniversity Training and examination on hand surgery. Since 2021, she had a national FWO Clinical Grant and is thus appointed 50% academic researcher at Leuven University, with a focus on Dupuytren disease, a translational research subject in which she graduated with PhD in 2009.

Christian Dumontier
Guadeloupe/Paris, France

Christian Dumontier is a medical doctor, with a PhD in ethics and health law.
He is an associate member of the academy of surgery and was professor of plastic and hand Surgery in Nice.
He is currently working in a private practice in Guadeloupe Island (French West Indies). His main area of interests are teaching. His current research is about infection, hand trauma and nail surgery. He is a member of the FESSH examiners board and has been instruction for the FESSH Academy

Camillo Fulchignoni
Rome, Italy

Camillo Fulchignoni is a consultant in the Hand Surgery Department at Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, IRCSS in Rome. He has an Orthopedic training, but spent most of his training in the Hand Department of this hospital. During his training he also spent 6 months as a fellow in Paris at Institut de la Main, and spent his last year visiting Dr Battiston in Torino and Dr Felici in Rome as winner of the Italian Society for Hand Surgery (SICM) fellowship program, specializing in Microsurgery and Orthoplastic Surgery. Moreover, he is actually a PhD student in Oncological Sciences. He is actually YEHS (Young European Hand Surgeons) President and past Secretary, co-chair of FESSH Education Committee, and he is EJD (European Junior Doctors) representative at UEMS (European Union of Medical Specialists) for Hand Surgery.

Judit Hetthessy
Budapest, Hungary

Judit Hetthessy, MD PhD, co-chair of the Research Committee. She worked as a specialist trained Senior Consultant of Hand Surgery, and Assistant Professor at the Department of Orthopedics, Semmelweis University in Hungary. She now works in her own private practice, handling a wide range of elective cases with a focus on secondary reconstruction, rhemuatoid hand, tumors and congenital deformities. She holds a FESSH diploma since 2016. Dr. Hetthessy is currently also a Member of the Board of the Hungarian Society for Surgery of the Hand and worked as an Assistant Professor at the Science Management Workgroup of the Doctoral School of Semmelweis University for three years, and is an active PhD mentor, while pursuing research projects herself. Her private practice (Hand Clinic Budapest) is now an accredited training facility for Semmelweis University.

Steven Hovius
Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Steven Hovius is currently a part time staff member at Radboud University, Medical Centre Nijmegen and Xpert Clinics, Hand and Wrist Centre Rotterdam. He was formerly the Professor and Head of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Hand Surgery at the ErasmusMC University Medical Centre Rotterdam, The Netherlands (1996-2016).
He is board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
He has strong interest in hand and wrist surgery, more specific congenital hand differences, peripheral nerve pathology, tendon transfers, Dupuytren's Disease. He is (Co-)Author of 352 international publications (pubmed), 34 chapters in international books and 7 chapters in national books. He is editor of 3 books, 15 national publications in Journals, promotor of 72 PhD theses, having more than 150 international invitations to present lectures.
Reviewer at many international journals (including Lancet, JHSE and JHSA, PRS, JBJS, THUES, etc), and organizer of many national and international meetings. He is one of the past secretary generals of FESSH (1999 – 2002).

Nikolay Karpinsky
St. Petersburg, Russia

He lives and works in St. Petersburg in private and university clinics. His main interests are comfortable WALANT handsurgery, wrist reconstruction and orthotic fabrication. FESSH has always been a part of his professional life since winning travel award in 2012. He was invited to join Social Media Committee in 2019 and became its co-chair in 2023. He has passed FESSH exam in 2020. At home Nikolai is recognised as an active board member of national society Hand Group and co-founder of Handclub. He works also is a faculty of local hand courses and founder of annual Handclub Academy. Handsurgeons may also know him as a triathlete who has won the first IFSSH triathlon in Berlin 2019.

Maria Larrea-Zabalo
Barcelona, Spain

Maria Larrea-Zabalo studied medicine at the University of the Basque Country, Spain. She performed her residency in Hospital Donostia, in San Sebastian. During her residency she spent 3 months in an observership in Ganga Hospital (Coimbatore, India) with Dr Raja Sabapathy. She worked in different hospitals of the Basque Country related to the Departments of Hand Surgery. In 2022 she started her fellowship in hand surgery visiting different Departments in Hand Surgery in Spain: Dr Pedro Delgado in Madrid for one month, 3 months in Kaplan Hand Institut, 2 months in Traumaunit with Dr Casañas and one month with Dr Carratalá in Valencia. She currently works in Kaplan Hand Institut and a labor clinic, Mutua Universal, in Barcelona. She is a young revisor of the Journal of Hand Surgery and is involved in research in Hand Surgery in Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (Bellaterra).

Alex Lluch
Barcelona, Spain

Dr. Alex Lluch is a hand surgeon from Barcelona, Spain. He is the co-director of Institut Kaplan and head of the Hand & Wrist Unit in Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in his hometown. Fascinated by hand surgery since his years of Medical School, he still has the need for learning and sharing knowledge with frequent visits around the world. He has special interest in the treatment of arthrosis and carpal instabilities, reason why he has contributed to create the Barcelona Wrist Biomechanics Study Group.
Àlex joined the Relation Committee of FESSH in 2017, and continued serving as Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee of FESSH.

Zafar Naqui
Manchester, UK

Zafar Naqui British Diploma Hand Surgery, European Board Hand Diploma, MSc (Hand Surgery)
President of FESSH (2026-2029)
Zaf Naqui is the Group Clinical Director of Trauma, Orthopaedic and Plastic Surgery at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust in Manchester, UK. He heads up the Orthoplastic Hand Unit at Salford Royal Hospital. After graduating from University College London he undertook surgical training in the North West of England. His first hand surgery fellowship was at Wrightington Hospital followed by an orthoplastic BSSH TIG ATP fellowship at the Salford Royal and South Manchester Hospitals. He undertook travelling fellowships at Harvard Massachusetts General Hospital, USA, ASSH International Fellowship to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and BSSH Stack Fellowship to Institut de la Main Paris, Kaplan Barcelona and Hong Kong. He undertook the BSSH Masters in Hand Surgery with his thesis on the management of chronic carpal instability. His clinical interests include wrist pain, small joint arthroscopy, thumb base arthritis and trauma.

He is Honorary Treasurer and Officer of the BSSH, having served on BSSH Council, BSSH Instructional Courses of Hand Surgery and BSSH Cadaveric Masterclasses faculties. He is a member of the Journal of Hand Surgery (Eur) Committee of Management and has previously chaired the JHS(Eur) digital team which includes the delivery of the JHS(Eur) journal club webinars. Insta/Twitter/FB/LinkedIN: @zafnaqui

Mikko Räisänen
Tampere, Finland

Mikko Räisänen, MD, is a dedicated hand surgeon and an active member of the FESSH Research Committee. He serves as a part-time Consultant in Hand Surgery at Kuopio University Hospital in Finland and practices in several private clinics. His clinical expertise focuses on wrist and elbow pathologies, with a strong research interest in Dupuytren’s contracture. Dr. Räisänen earned his FESSH Diploma in 2021 and currently serves on the Board of the Finnish Society for Surgery of the Hand. He is a passionate mentor, at the moment supervising over twenty medical student theses and PhD projects. An enthusiastic educator, Dr. Räisänen leads a national webinar series on wrist pathologies for Finnish hand surgeons and plays a key role in organising academic events.

Ole Reigstad
Oslo, Norway

Ole Reigstad (1969) is working as hand surgery consultant and is head of Hand and Foot department at Martina Hansens Hospital in Oslo, Norway. He is MD (1998), specialist in orthopedic surgery (2006), and defended his PhD "Wrist arthroplasty: bone fixation, clinical development and mid- to long term results" in 2013. He has the Norwegian Diploma in Hand surgery (2011) and is a fellow of the European Board of Hand Surgery (EBHS) from 2017. His research interest includes a variety of orthopedic and hand surgery subjects, with a special interest in carpal injuries, scaphoid non-union, wrist and hand arthrosis, small joint arthroplasties and biomaterials. He is tutoring medical students and specialist candidates in hand surgery and teaches at specialist courses in orthopedic and hand surgery in Norway and Sweden and on international courses including FESSH academy courses. He has published more than 35 peer reviewed papers as well as book chapters. In 2011 he was part of the organizing committee for FESSH (Oslo) and is a member of the scientific committee for FESSH 2024 (Rotterdam). He is Norwegian delegate and vice president to the Scandinavian Society for Surgery of the Hand (SSSH).

Jorma Ryhänen
Helsinki, Finland

Dr. Jorma Ryhänen is a Head and Professor of Hand Surgery at Helsinki University Hospital.
Prof. Ryhänen received his M.D. degree from The University of Oulu in 1989. He qualified as a Specialist in Surgery and later as a Specialist in Hand surgery (2000). He finished his PhD thesis 1999 (Dr.Med., Ph.D.) deal with surgical biomaterials. Further, he received a position as an associate Professor of Hand Surgery (University of Oulu, 2003) and also a position as an associate Professor of Biomaterial Engineering (Institute of Biomaterials, Tampere University of Technology, 2004).
Prof. Ryhänen has been a board member of examiners of qualifications in hand surgery in Finland during the years 2001-2022. He has been a responsible supervisor of over 20 graduated hand surgery registrars. He has been in charge of Hand Surgery teaching at University of Oulu (2000-2011) and the University of Kuopio (2004-2009). Since 2017 he has been a chief and now also working as a Professor being responsible person for the Hand Surgery teaching and training program at the University of Helsinki.
Significant positions of Prof. Ryhänen in scientific societies include the Finnish Society for Surgery of the Hand (past Chair) and the Finnish Society of Surgery (past board member). He is the Finnish delegate of FESSH. He has been a Permanent Medical Expert in the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health and a Permanent Medical Expert in The Finnish Patient Insurance Centre for several years.
Prof. Ryhänen is a member of The Finnish Medical Association (FMA), The Finnish Society of Surgery, The Finnish Society for Surgery of the Hand (FSSH). He is also a member of the FESSH, ASSH, and SSSH societies.
The scientific interests of Prof. Ryhänen are focused on several clinical fields of hand surgery, as well as biomaterials, epidemiology, and artificial intelligence solutions in hand surgery. He has been writer or co-writer in a tremendous amount of original articles, several books and other publications in the field. He has been a supervisor or opponent of several doctoral dissertations and other academic theses. Prof. Ryhänen has participated in numerous meetings as course chair, faculty and moderator. He has been an invited lecturer in several countries worldwide and continues to be active as a scientific reviewer (and editor) of various journals.
The clinical practice includes every field of hand surgery (trauma and reconstructive surgery, plexus, toe transfers, etc.). Still, his main interest is focusing on hand transplantation surgery, and he is leading a project on this in his hospital.