If it's not, that may be a good time to get evaluated.ĭr. If you are overly concerned, usually your body will tell you if things are getting better or not. Tyser: That's a great question and I think I would typically do the normal things that we recommend for many relatively minor injuries to the wrist, that is ice, elevation, resting it, and observing it and keeping a close eye on it. Miller: If you've fallen on your wrist and you think it may just be a strain, is there anything you should be doing between the time you decide that you need to see the doctor? That is, could you ice it? Could you take ibuprofen or aspirin? What would you recommend?ĭr. Sometimes people that are skiing or participating in other sports that take a hard fall unexpectedly have that fracture. Falling on an outstretched hand pretty hard typically. Miller: And how would you get that fracture? Would you fall on an outstretched hand?ĭr. It's on the thumb side of the wrist and about an inch or so right before your wrist bends. Miller: Is the distal radius closer to the thumb or the little finger? Where is that?ĭr. There are a couple of other smaller bones in the wrist that also sometimes get broken, but they're a little bit less common.ĭr. It seems to be a commonly fractured area of all ages. Tyser: I think the most common fracture that we see as hand surgeons and hand specialists, is a fracture of what's called the distal radius. Miller: And there are certain parts of the wrist that become fractured, the back, the front, one of the particular bones.ĭr. The X-ray is a fairly simple, quick, easy thing to do and will tell us usually one way or the other if you have a fracture or not.ĭr. I think ruling out a fracture is sometimes just as important as diagnosing one. Tyser: And we see that quite a bit in our clinic as well as in the emergency room or urgent care centers. So maybe for those who wonder if it's fractured they should just have that checked out.ĭr. Miller: Now there are many bones in the hand and sometimes if you have a fracture it may not be quite obvious and I think that's one of the things you were saying. But if the pain is not getting better and persists and the swelling gets worse, difficult use to the hand, etc., many times an X-ray is warranted to determine if it is a wrist fracture or not.ĭr. Usually in that case, if the pain subsides over the next few days, it's typically considered a wrist fracture. However, in many cases the wrist looks pretty normal, maybe a little bit swollen and it's not as clear. In that case it's pretty obviously going to be a wrist fracture. The wrist may look like it's not straight. Miller: How would you know? Is it swollen? Is it red? Is it just not mobile? Symptoms of Broken & Sprained Wristsĭr. And the first question is, this hurts, is it broken or not?ĭr. Lots of times people have a simple fall from ground level, sometimes slipping on the ice, sometimes falling off a bike. Many times they're caused by similar mechanisms. I think it's important to know that wrist fractures in general are very common as are wrist sprains. Miller: How would somebody know if they might have a wrist fracture versus a sprain of the wrist? What are the common ways that we get wrist fractures?ĭr. Andrew Tyser and he is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in hand care and hand surgery. Miller: Do you have a wrist fracture and what do you do about that if you have one? We're going to talk about that next on Scope Radio.
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