Linda Cendales, M.D.

Specialties:
Surgery
Transplantation

Areas of Clinical Interest:
carpal tunnel syndrome
hand-non sx tx
hand surgery
microsurgery
wrist

Office(s) Locations:
The Emory Clinic Building B
1365 Clifton Road, NE, 6th Floor Atlanta, GA 30322
(404) 727-0701

Additional Spoken Language(s):
Spanish

About Dr. Cendales

Dr. Cendales, the only person in the United States with formal training in both hand and transplant surgery, is the director of the Vascularized Composite Transplantation and Microsurgery Laboratory of the Emory Transplant Center. Composite allotransplantation is the transplantation of multiple tissues such as skin, muscle, bone, nerves, and tendons as a functional unit. She assisted in the organization of the first hand transplant team in the United States in Louisville, KY, which performed the first and second hand transplants in 1999 and 2001. Dr. Cendales began conducting the first clinical trial of VCA in hand transplantation at Emory and in March 2011 she led the multi-disciplinary team that performed Georgia's first hand transplant. The procedure was also the first in the Southeast and only the 14th such transplant in the country. Dr. Cendales also directs a microsurgical techniques and skills training course that is available to Emory and non-Emory University physicians, fellows, residents, technicians and students.

Other Specialties and Areas of Interest:

• Microsurgery
• Transplantation
• Hand Surgery
• Hand Transplantation
• Tendon Injuries
• Nerve Injuries
• Carpel Tunnel Syndrome
• Trigger Finger
• Wrist
• Nerve Compression
• Hand Pain
• Nailbed Injuries
• Fractures
• Finger Deformities
• Closed and Open Reductions and Fixations - realigns fractured bone, after which internal fixtures such as wires, rods, splints and casts immobilize the area during healing.
• Complex Upper Extremity Reconstruction - done following severe conditions such as spinal cord injury, brachial plexus injury, stroke, severe trauma and/or loss of tissue.
• Fabrication of Custom Splints - treats congenital anomalies, nerve injuries, palsy, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis, fractures, and tendon injuries.
• Fasciotomy - treats the early stages of compartment syndrome by placing surgical incisions to release pressure and remove any damaged tissue, thereby preventing any additional decrease in function of the affected area.
• Hand Transplant - for below the elbow amputations, hand transplantation is performed by Emory's Hand Transplant Program.
• Joint Replacement - also known as arthroplasty, this procedure uses artificial joints made out of metal, plastic, silicone rubber, or the patient's own tissue.
• Pediatric Hand Surgery - for very young patients, specialists design a plan for surgical intervention that corresponds to developmental milestones in hand-to-eye coordination and that makes use of the flexibility of the growing skeleton, thereby minimizing psychological damage.
• Peripheral Nerve Repair and Reconstruction - often achieved with microsurgical suture repair.
• Reconstruction of Missing Digits - typically done with toe-to-thumb or toe-to-finger transfers.
• Skin Flaps - similar to skin grafting except that the retrieved skin includes the underlying blood vessels, fat, and muscles.
• Skin Grafting - involves the transfer of a patch of healthy skin from one area of the patient's body to the affected area.
• Surgical Drainage - done if there is an abscess in the hand, removing the collection of pus. Debridement, or cleansing of a wound to prevent further infection and to help healing, may be used if the infection or wound is severe.
• Tendon Repair, Primary or Delayed Primary

Year Started Practicing at Emory: 2007

Education:
Medical School
Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico City, Mexico 1992

Fellowship
Hand and Microsurgery, Christine M. Kleinert Institute for Hand and Microsurgery, Louisville, KY 2001
Transplant Surgery, National Institutes of Health, Behethesda, MD 2004