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Carpal Ligament Surgery pp 3–17Cite as

Anatomy of the Carpal Ligaments

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Abstract

Variable descriptions and nomenclatures of the ligaments of the wrist have been presented. Classical anatomical textbooks describe more than 30 different ligaments related to the carpus. Differences of description, classification, and nomenclature increase the complexity of understanding this region. More recently, researchers proposed a simplified description of the carpal ligaments using various classifications. Several authors also mention a variability of carpal ligament anatomy, which could contribute to explain the differences found in the literature. Sennwald and Segmüller presented a classification of the wrist ligaments in five groups. In this chapter, we will attempt to summarize the principal lessons that can be drawn from the literature concerning the functional anatomy of the carpal ligaments. We will use, for this description, the classification suggested by Sennwald and Segmüller as a basis while taking into account structures which are not included in this classification.

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  1. Laboratoire d’Anatomie Fonctionnelle, Faculté des Sciences de la Motricité, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 808 route de Lennik, CP 619, B-1070, Brussels, Belgium

    V. Feipel

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  1. , Hand Surgery Unit, Polyclinique du Val de Sambre, route de Mons, Maubeuge, 59600, France

    Emmanuel Camus

  2. , Hand Surgery Unit, HFSU, rue Neuve 9, Tournai, 7500, Belgium

    Luc Van Overstraeten

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Feipel, V. (2013). Anatomy of the Carpal Ligaments. In: Camus, E., Van Overstraeten, L. (eds) Carpal Ligament Surgery. Springer, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-2-8178-0379-1_1

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