The wrist joint is a complex joint formed by the combination of 15 bones. Tendons, nerves and veins that work to make hand movements extend around the joint.
Wrist injuries can occur during both sportive movements and daily activities.
These injuries can be divided into two groups as traumatic and overuse.
While traumatic injuries such as fractures, dislocations and ligament tears are common in sports involving contact and collision, stress and overuse injuries are common in gymnastics, golf and racquet sports.
Soft tissue injuries constitute the majority of injuries. The type and frequency of damage to the wrist varies according to the sport performed.
Traumatic Injuries
Traumatic injuries can be examined in two groups as fractures and ligament injuries:
Among the fractures, the most common are scaphoid (navicular) bone fractures.
The treatment of scaphoid fractures is surgery.
Ligament injuries are mostly observed in the scapholunate ligament and triangular fibrocartilage complex. The main thing here is the severity of the injury and whether it causes instability in the joint.
Each patient is evaluated individually and the treatment path is chosen.
Overuse Injuries
Dequervain’s disease is the most common wrist injury due to overuse. It is the most common overuse injury in athletes. It is mostly seen in golf, racquet sports and fishing. It is characterized by pain felt at the junction of the wrist with the thumb.
Treatment includes resting the joint with a splint, corticosteroid injection and surgical relaxation.
