Last Wednesday the Fortius webinar 'Hand and Wrist Injuries in Lockdown' was broadcast to 406 registered attendees. I had the pleasure to chair the meeting and my presentation, entitled 'Wrist Ligament Injuries in Lockdown' focused on the high number of patients I have treated with wrist pain during lockdown.
Most patients had not suffered an accident but noticed gradual onset wrist pain, apparently from increased levels of home exercise, pilates, yoga and fitness training....activities they turned to to support their mental and physical health during these strange times. Many of these activities involve loading the wrist in extension (see the photos) which is a 'stressful' position for wrist ligaments and this, over time, can lead to 'sprain' or partial tearing of the wrist ligaments.
The Kaplan medical centre in Barcelona headed by Mr Marc Garcia-Elias constantly updates our understanding of wrist ligaments and has shown the biomechanics to be rather 'beautifully complex' involving feedback proprioception from ligaments that can support each other and recruitment of their supporting muscles.
Chronic wrist pain that begins gradually is a common problem that can usually be treated non-operatively by identifying the affected ligaments, regularly exercising the appropriate supporting muscles, modifying exercise patterns, usage of supporting equipment and sometimes quelling acute inflammation with a steroid injection. If surgery is required arthroscopy (a keyhole procedure) is the preferred method, progressing to open procedures if the ligament injury is more severe which is, thankfully, rare.
The full presentation will be available to view from next week via this site and if you would like more information, suffer from wrist pain or would like to refer a patient please get in touch via the contact details.