As you may or may not know (it doesn’t really matter), I’ve been rehabilitating a wrist injury I sustained months ago. Like many of you tell me, I do not recall exactly how or when I injured it. And, as I’ll say to you, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is a proper diagnosis and treatment plan. As often is the case, whenever I have an injury, I tend to see many patients with similar injuries, which gives us plenty to commiserate about. So, of course, I have a few patients dealing with similar wrist injuries. So, naturally, felt like a good time to blog about the wrist.
Like all our joints, the wrist proves super important and a major hinderance on functional living when injured. Golf, tennis, pickleball, making dinner, yoga, and even just opening doors become a painful task or fall out of our routine. And, again, like our other joints, recovery is sometimes quick with little effort and other times lengthy with lots of treatment and rehab.
Wrist anatomy 101:
The wrist is the joint between the lower arm and hand. It involves a lot of bones! There are 8 little carpal bones that articulate with the arm bones (radius, ulna) and the hand bones that form our fingers (metacarpals). The muscles that cross the wrist joint are our forearm muscles. These are the muscles that can cause elbow pain (eg. Golfer’s Elbow, Tennis Elbow) when they get injured at the elbow, such as tendonitis. And, one of a few important nerves that travel down our arm – the Median Nerve – travels down our forearm, past the wrist through a tunnel made by the little carpal bones – the Carpal Tunnel.
Common Injuries:
If you fall on your wrist (trauma!), the bones can break or the ligaments and tendons in the region can sprain and/or strain. Or, just repetitive use of the wrist (golf, tennis, etc.) can lead to an overuse injury resulting in a sprain or strain. The little bones can become a bit misaligned, leading to pain as well. The dreaded Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can also develop. This is basically a situation where the space in the tunnel for the median nerve gets smaller causing nerve symptoms, typically affecting your wrist, thumb, index finger and middle finger. Inflammation of the tunnel or actual physical loss of space can be the culprit.
The Solution:
Treatment and rehabilitation to the rescue. I know what you’re thinking: What about surgery, especially for carpal tunnel syndrome? Well, the evidence shows that conservative rehabilitation produces similar results to surgery without the risk of surgical complications.
Conservative rehabilitation that tends to deliver results includes:
- Wrist mobilizations
- Soft tissue therapies directed at the wrist, forearm, arm, chest and neck muscles
- Modalities like Laser Therapy
- And self-care rehabilitation exercises, such as:
o Wrist strength training
o Forearm, chest, and neck stretches
o Wrist mobility exercises
o Median nerve flossing