Feb. 11, 2026

This piece is sponsored by Avera Health.

All body parts are essential, but possibly none is more useful for practical living and working than the human hand. For Dr. Razvan Nicolescu of Avera Orthopedics, the complexity and intricacy of the upper extremity is what drew him to the specialty of orthopedics and specifically to hand, wrist and elbow surgery.

“I liked that I could help patients from 0 to 101 gain or regain use of their hand and upper extremity, whether that’s treatment for a mass or tumor, arthritis, infection, broken bone or overuse injury,” Nicolescu said.

While his last name isn’t all that hard to pronounce for Midwesterners, he’s commonly called Dr. Raz by his patients and staff.

Born in Romania, Nicolescu came to the United States with his parents at age 6. “They were escaping communism and all the fallout surrounding the end of the USSR and Communist dictators.”

The family settled in Florida.

First in his family to enter the medical field, Nicolescu was attracted to medicine through the opportunity to shadow his friend’s father, a cardiologist.

“I was always more scientifically inclined,” he said.

Nicolescu went to medical school at the University of Miami and finished his specialty training at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. In medical school, his interests turned specifically to surgery, then orthopedic surgery, then the specialty of hand, wrist and elbow surgery.

A colleague from residency in Fargo informed Nicolescu of an opportunity to practice there, and that connection is what landed a Floridian in the Upper Midwest. Several years later when he discovered Sioux Falls and Avera, he felt drawn by the people and the culture.

Nicolescu and his wife, Jeanette, have two young children.

“Sioux Falls is a family-friendly town, the people are top notch, and it’s safe and tranquil,” he said. “We love to go visit family in Florida and have them come visit us, but Florida is not for us anymore.”

Overall, the weather was an adjustment, “but Sioux Falls was a step up compared to Fargo,” he joked.

Nicolescu sees patients on the third floor of Pavilion 1 on the Avera on Louise Health Campus, then has a very short commute to the surgical suites on the second floor of the adjoining Avera Specialty Hospital. Common procedures resolve the pain and disability of medical conditions such as carpal tunnel or nerve compression, trigger finger and arthritis, including basilar thumb arthritis. Then there’s the whole range of trauma, like someone slipping on the ice and breaking their wrist or elbow, or a deep laceration that cuts into a nerve or tendon of the hand.

Advancements in technology and technique provide more options for procedures to help people regain function and get relief from pain.

“New implants and techniques, and the armamentarium we have to treat injuries and nontraumatic pathologies have advanced and continue to evolve,” Nicolescu said.

One example is an endoscopic carpal tunnel release that requires only a 1-centimeter incision compared with a 2-inch incision in the past.

“The treatment has become so favorable – benefit to risk – that most of my patients say they should have done this a long time ago,” he said. “The recovery is easier with less pain and quicker return to activity, and that’s just one example.”

In addition to his surgical practice, Nicolescu joined a leadership practicum at Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center.

It’s a great way to see how health care decisions are made and gain a greater understanding for the complexity behind health care leadership, he said.

“I love medical practice, so I don’t think I’d ever want to leave it, but possibly incorporating leadership within my medical practice is something I’m testing out.”