Hand

Hand and Wrist Fractures

Signs and Symptoms
Diagnosis
Treatment

Signs and Symptoms

The bones in a normal hand line up precisely, letting you perform many specialized functions like grasping a pen or manipulating small objects in your palm. When you fracture a finger bone, it can put your whole hand out of alignment. Without treatment, your broken finger may stay stiff and painful.

Sometimes a bone can break without you realizing it. That's usually what happens to the scaphoid bone in your wrist, a boat-shaped bone located on the outermost side of the thumb side of the hand. Many people with a fractured scaphoid think they have a sprained wrist instead of a broken bone because there is no obvious deformity and very little swelling.

Signs and symptoms of a fracture in the bones of your hand or wrist include pain and tenderness and swelling. If you have a finger fracture, you may be unable to move your finger. Other indications of a finger fracture are a shortened finger, a depressed knuckle or if your finger crosses over an adjacent finger when you make a partial fist. If you have a wrist fracture, you may be unable to hold a grip. Other signs of a wrist fracture are pain that may subside, then return as a deep, dull aching and marked tenderness when pressure is applied on the side of the hand between two tendons that lead to the thumb.

Reviewed by health care specialists at UCSF Medical Center.
Last updated May 8, 2007