J Korean Orthop Assoc.  1986 Feb;21(1):73-86. 10.4055/jkoa.1986.21.1.73.

Carpal Injuries

• Lee HK
• Chung MS
• Seong SC
• Hwang KY
• Lee JW

• KMID: 2445984
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4055/jkoa.1986.21.1.73

Abstract

In carpal injury, a good functional end result seems to correlate with final anatomic alignment of carpus after treatment. Some cases are often misdiagnosed and result in inadequate treatment. Forty six cases of carpal injuries were analysed which were treated for 9 years from 1975 to 1984 at the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital. The observations can be summarized as follows. 1. The male to female ratio was 3.5: 1 and 82% of total cases were in the third and fourth decades. 2. The most frequent cause of injury was fall from height with outstretched hand. 3. Trans-scaphoid perilunar dislocation and its variant were the most common diagnosis in this analysis. 4. All of the scapho-lunate dissociation showed volar flexion intercalated segmental instability with scapho-lunate gap more than 2 mm in our series. 5. In 11 cases of trans-scaphoid perilunar dislocation and its variant, carpal collapse was found in 10 cases. In 5 cases dorsiflexion intercalated segmental instability pattern and in one case volar flexion intercalated segmental instability pattern were found to be present. 6, There was an increase in scapho-lunate angle in all cases of dorsiflexion intercalated segmental instability, but a decrease in scapho-lunate angle is not a consistent finding in volar flexion intercalated segmental instability. 7. In 24 cases more than 6 months follow-up, excellent and good results were obtained in 20 cases. 8. As a result of above findings, authors conclude that scapho-lunate gap more than 2mm has diagnostic value in scapho-lunate dissociation but that dorsiflexion intercalated segmental instability or volar flexion intercalated segmental instability only means the changes in the relationship between carpal bones and does not have definite or specific diagnostic value for a specific carpal injury.

Keyword

Wrist; Fracture; Dislocation

MeSH Terms

Carpal Bones
Diagnosis
Dislocations
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Hand
Humans
Male
Orthopedics
Seoul
Wrist