ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the clinical evaluation and management of 17 different wrist, hand, and finger pathologies, using a combination of on-field and off-field scenarios presented in a variety of settings with a diverse patient population. The traumatic and overuse injuries to the wrist and hand complex presented in the chapter are a mixture of acute and chronic pathologies as well as bony, ligamentous, and neurovascular conditions. Injuries to the wrist are often the result of direct violent trauma, axial loading when falling on an outstretched hand, rotational force, and/or repetitive movements. Injuries to the hand and wrist account for 3 to 9 percent of all athletic injuries and 1.5 to 20 percent of all emergency room visits in the general population. Among the carpal (wrist) bones, the scaphoid is the most commonly fractured and at the greatest risk for developing avascular necrosis, because of the bone's poor vascular supply.
