Athletic injuries of the wrist.

The wrist is at risk for injury in many athletic endeavors, often in acute falls or dorsiflexion injuries and at other times from repetitive stress involved with fitness routines or specific motions called for in the sport. Dorsiflexion accounts for most wrist problems giving rise to compression injuries dorsally such as scaphoid impaction, triquetrohamate impaction, and occult ganglions. These are seen most often in weight lifters, gymnasts, and push-up enthusiasts. Tension injuries occur on the palmar aspect of the wrist with disruption or attenuation of the supporting ligaments or interosseous membranes. This provides scapholunate tears, scapholunate dissociation, lunatotriquetral, midcarpal instability problems, and so forth, which are generally the result of single energetic injuries commonly associated with contact sports. Distal radioulnar injuries include chondromalacia of the ulnar head, ulnar head subluxation, and ulnocarpal impingements with tears of the triangular fibrocartilage. Forceful rotational injuries are generally associated with the former and stressful ulnar deviation with the latter, where tennis players and baseball batters are at risk. Fracture of the hook of the hamate and pisotriquetral chondromalacia are common in sports requiring holding a club, handle, or bat. Precise, early diagnosis affords the best chance for successful treatment.