What are Common Wrist Injuries and How to Manage Them?

Wrist injuries: Overview

Wrist injuries are common in people involved in high-contact sports and have repetitive use of their wrists and hands at their occupations. As well as this, falling on an outstretched hand or arm may also cause wrist injuries, like wrist sprains. This article is a detailed account of the most common wrist injuries found in sportspeople and other occupations. As well as this, you can find the possible treatment plans to help deal with wrist problems. The article is concluded with the possible preventive measures to avoid the chances of wrist injuries. These preventive measures are suggested by experts, helping people get a safe sports and occupation experience. So, let’s begin our discussion here.

Common wrist injuries

The following are the most common wrist injuries:

Carpal tunnel syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome is one of the most common conditions of the wrist. The condition occurs when the median nerve is pressed. The carpal tunnel is a narrow passageway surrounded by ligaments and bones on the hand's palm. When the median nerve or carpal tunnel is compressed it may result in pain, tingling, numbness, and weakness around the wrist and hand.

Some medical conditions may also result in carpal tunnel syndrome and these include diabetes, thyroid dysfunction, fluid retention from menopause or pregnancy, high blood pressure, autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, and wrist fracture.

Wrist arthritis

Your wrist joint is made up of many small bones – connecting your hands and forearm. An inflammation of the wrist joint is known as wrist arthritis. Joint inflammation can happen in different areas of the wrists and depending upon the area of inflammation, medical professionals categorised wrist arthritis into three different types:

• Distal radioulnar arthritis: In this case, arthritis occurs where the radius bone connects the ulna bone in the forearm.
• Midcarpal arthritis: When arthritis occurs in the eight small carpal bones, it refers to as midcarpal arthritis.
• Radiocarpal arthritis: When arthritis occurs where the radius, ulna, and carpal bones meet, it is radiocarpal arthritis.

The common symptoms of wrist arthritis may include swollen joints, stiffness, reduced range of motion, and wrist and hand weakness.

Wrist sprain

A wrist sprain is another common wrist condition that is usually experienced by sportspeople due to a fall and a sudden twisting motion. It may also occur when the wrist is bent backwards or into an abnormal position. Pain is the primary symptom of a wrist sprain. However, you may also feel swelling, tenderness, a popping sensation, bruising, loss of motion, and weakness. Depending upon the severity, a wrist sprain is divided into three main categories:

• Grade I or mild sprain: Grade I sprain refers to minor damage to the ligament.
• Grade II or moderate sprain: A grade II sprain is severe ligament damage. It may result in joint looseness feeling or loss of function.
• Grade III or severe sprain: Grade III sprain occurs when the ligaments are completely torn. Severe looseness of joints and loss of functionality are common symptoms.

Wrist tendinitis

Wrist tendinitis is an inflammation of the wrist tendons – tendons that connect the lower arm to the bones in the fingers. The condition causes pain while gripping or lifting objects. You may also feel pain when moving your wrists or hands. Repetitive stress on the tendons is the common cause of wrist tendinitis. Common symptoms of wrist tendinitis may include pain, stiffness, popping sensation, swelling, and difficulty performing certain movements.

Wrist fracture

Breaking or cracking one or more bones of the wrists is known as a wrist fracture. Falling on an outstretched hand, high-contact sports, and car accidents are the common causes of wrist fractures. A wrist fracture usually results in severe pain, swelling, tenderness, bruising, and obvious deformity.

Treatment plans for wrist injuries

Whenever you feel pain and other discomforts in your wrist, you must restrict all activities and consult your GP or doctor to diagnose the causes of pain instead. Remember that overusing and ignoring symptoms. Your healthcare provider will perform some physical checkups to diagnose the causes of pain. They may also suggest some radiological tests to diagnose the symptoms deeply. The radiological tests usually used may include X-rays, MRI, and ultrasound. Wrist injuries may recover through conservative measures, nonsurgical, and surgical treatments, depending upon the severity of the conditions.

Conservative measures for wrist injuries

The following are the common and most effective conservative measures to deal with mild wrist injuries:

• Rest: Provide your wrist with complete rest to relieve pain and avoid further injuries.
• Ice massage: Apply ice to the injured areas to help relieve pain and swelling. It is advised to apply ice 15 – 20 minutes for 2 – 3 times a day.
• Compression: Compressing the injured area helps reduce pain and swelling. when it comes to providing your wrists with the needed compression, wrist braces are very helpful. Wearing wrist support braces can ease pain and help you treat injuries.
• Elevation: Elevating the injured areas helps relieve pain and swelling. It is advisable to elevate the injured areas above your heart.

Nonsurgical treatments for wrist injuries

Some conditions, such as wrist sprain, arthritis, and others do not recover from conservative measures and need further treatment. The following are the best nonsurgical treatment process, to help reduce mild to moderate symptoms:

• Medication: Healthcare professionals suggest taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, NSAIDs, as they help relieve pain and promote healing. They may also suggest injecting steroid injections, depending on your conditions.
• Immobilisation: Immobilisation helps restrict unnecessary movements to control further damage. Immobilisation may also help you speed up recovery following an injury. Wrist braces are the best tools to immobilise injured areas.
• Physical therapy: Physical therapy helps restore the wrist's range of motion to the normal position.

Surgical treatments for wrist injuries

Some severe conditions, such as wrist fractures may require serious medical attention or surgery to recover completely. The following are the common surgical processes used to treat severe wrist problems:

• Proximal row corpectomy: During this procedure, surgeons may remove three of the carpal bones near the forearm. It helps relieve pain.
• Wrist fusion: When you feel pain with every wrist movement, wrist fusion is an appropriate option. During wrist fusion, your surgeons remove the damaged cartilage between the wrist bones and use screws or pins to hold the wrist bones together until they grow and fuse into a single unit.
• Total wrist replacement: It is also known as arthroplasty during which surgeons remove the damaged bones and cartilage and then replace them with components made of plastics and metals.

Preventive measures to avoid wrist injuries

• Warm-up: Warm up your body before every sport, athletic, or occupational activity.
• Avoid overuse: Avoid overuse or overtraining and take frequent breaks when you involve in repetitive movements of wrists.
• Wear protective gear: Wearing protective gear like wrist support braces helps reduce the chances of overuse injuries during sports and other occupational activities.
• Avoid falling: Avoid falling during sports and other activities.

Maintain posture: Ensure that you perform every activity in the appropriate posture to reduce pressure on the wrists.