Dr. Steven Glickel, MD

Who is Dr. Glickel, Orthopedic Hand Surgeon in New York, NY?

Steven Z. Glickel, MD, specializes in surgery of the hand, wrist, forearm, and elbow at OrthoManhattan in New York City. Previously he was the director of the C.V. Starr Hand Surgery Center at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center (later called Mount Sinai West Hospital) for nearly 20 years. He directed the Hand Surgery Fellowship, the longest-standing hand surgery training program in the United States.

In 2007-2008 he was president of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand and from 2016-2018 he was the chairman of the American Foundation for Surgery of the Hand. In his nearly 40 years of performing hand, wrist, forearm, and elbow surgery, Dr. Glickel has earned an international reputation for being a technically outstanding surgeon. He cares for both adults and children.

From sports injuries and arthritis to congenital defects to tendon tears, Dr. Glickel diagnoses and treats conditions and injuries that include fractures, Dupuytren’s contracture, damaged and compressed nerves, musicians’ injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, and tendonitis, including “tennis elbow,” “trigger finger,” and “golfer’s elbow.”

Dr. Glickel considers himself a fairly conservative surgeon. “Many of my patients have problems that can be successfully treated with non-operative therapies such as physical therapy, splints, exercise, and medication,” he says.

“For those issues that don’t respond to conservative treatment — fractures and tendon and nerve lacerations, for instance — I bring decades of surgical experience to perform the simplest and most specific procedure to correct the problem. Our goal is always to restore function and return patients to their active lives as rapidly as possible.”

Dr. Glickel performs both minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery and traditional “open” surgery. He does procedures that include fracture repair; carpal tunnel release and other hand and elbow nerve decompressions; tendon and nerve repair; and surgery to treat arthritis of the hand, particularly the thumb.

He is one of only a handful of New York City specialists who regularly perform needle aponeurotomy, a minimally invasive surgical procedure used to treat Dupuytren's disease.

Dr. Glickel earned his medical degree at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He completed a general surgery residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, followed by a three-year orthopaedic surgery residency at the Harvard Combined Orthopedic Program. He then completed a research fellowship in microsurgery at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and a hand surgery fellowship at St. Luke’s–Roosevelt Hospital Center.

Among his many professional recognitions, Dr. Glickel was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Society for Surgery of the Hand in 2019, as well as with the 2020 David P. Green Mentorship Award from the American Society for Surgery of the Hand.

He is certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, with subspecialty certification in surgery of the hand from the American Society for Surgery of the Hand.

Outside of his practice, Dr. Glickel is a clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at New York University Grossman School of Medicine/Langone Medical Center in New York City.

He also serves as the director of research in NYU’s Division of Hand Surgery within the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, and is involved in a number of studies, including those looking at treatments for “trigger finger,” Dupuytren's disease, wrist fractures, and hand fractures. He is known academically for writing about thumb reconstruction as a treatment for arthritis.

Dr. Glickel is a member of professional organizations that include the American College of Surgeons, American Medical Association, American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, American Society for Surgery of the Hand, and American Orthopedic Association.

He served for 15 years as an associate editor of the Journal of Hand Surgery.