Evaluation of the Painful Wrist

Abstract

Wrist pain is usually associated with functional impairment of the entire upper extremity, which may disrupt the patient’s quality of life. The etiology of wrist pain can be very diverse. For that reason, the approach to a painful wrist is often challenging. The physician should keep a high index of suspicion during evaluation and be able to entertain all the possible etiologies in a vast array of bony structures, soft tissues, and extra-articular and intra-articular structures. The purpose of patient evaluation is to narrow possible causes of wrist pain based on patient’s history, physical examination, and findings of auxiliary studies. A systematic evaluation coupled with comprehensive knowledge of anatomy will likely avoid misdiagnosis and expedite diagnosis.