Our dedicated orthopedic surgeons and physician assistants at Orthopedic Specialists of North Texas understand that the hands are one of our body’s busiest parts and that the wrist is the hand’s foundation. That foundation is essential in supporting our hands’ dexterity, strength, and flexibility to get things done. From something as sophisticated as playing a musical instrument to something as simple as swinging a hammer, wrist pain can slow you down and keep you from reaching your goals.

Professional sports organizations, children’s hospitals, and cancer centers have trusted us for decades. Our surgeons are experts and offer the highest level of orthopedic wrist care, whether your goal is to excel as a professional athlete, advance in a career, keep up with the kids, or simply get through an ordinary day. Their specialties include professional sports medicine, arthroscopy, total joint reconstruction, and pediatric orthopedics. They are also certified by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the Texas Orthopedic Association, and the Texas Medical Association.

Causes of Wrist Pain

The wrist pain you are experiencing has a cause. Our orthopedic surgeons near Fort Worth have decades of experience diagnosing wrist injuries, from severe to subtle. They can pinpoint conditions and habits that produce stress on your wrists. Our complete facilities at Orthopedic Specialists of North Texas make it possible to diagnose and thoroughly treat your wrist pain at one sports medicine clinic.

Wrist Injuries

Usually, instant or persistent pain lets you know when you’ve sustained a wrist injury. Sprains and fractures can happen during intense activity, such as sports, vehicle collisions, or even ordinary slips and falls while walking or hiking.

While some wrist injuries can be mild, all injuries involve some damage. This can happen to your wrist’s eight small carpal bones, the ends of the radius and ulna bones in your forearm, the cartilage that cushions all these bones, or the ligaments and tendons that run through and around them. Because some injuries can affect the use of your wrists for life or lead to other problems, consulting our orthopedic specialists is never a bad idea. Common wrist injuries include:

• Wrist sprains: The wrist is marvelously designed to flex and move, but sometimes wrists are forced to move farther than their ligaments naturally allow. In mild sprains, the ligaments stretch painfully without tearing, but in severe sprains, the ligaments can tear or pull free from the bone. Sprains can cause tenderness, swelling, and bruising and often include popping and catching during movement.
• Broken bones: When you’ve fractured a carpal or forearm bone, you’ll most likely feel significant pain when moving or using your wrist or see obvious problems. Bruising or swelling often accompanies a broken bone in the wrist, even with subtle fractures. Other symptoms can include numbness or trouble moving your fingers.
• Repetitive stress: Wrist pain can result from repetitive strain, which happens in hobbies, such as knitting and video games, or essential activities, such as using tools or lifting children. If you notice wrist pain while doing something you frequently do, it may be from tendons that have become inflamed from constant use. You may experience swelling, tenderness, or wrist pain, especially during the activity causing it.

Conditions and Diseases That Affect the Wrist

Unfortunately, wrists can develop problems without injuries occurring at all. If you notice stiffness, swelling, or pain in your wrist that you can’t account for, something may be happening from the inside, which can include:

• Arthritis: Wrists are often the target of rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disorder that attacks the linings within the wrist joint. Osteoarthritis, caused by deteriorating cartilage around the bones, is less common. Non-injury swelling, stiffness, and pain could be indications of arthritis in your wrist joints.
• Ganglion cysts: A ganglion cyst is a fluid-filled, soft tissue lump frequently occurring in wrists, often just below the palm. These lumps can be small or large, sometimes inhibit movement, and any size of cyst could be painful or pain-free.
• Carpal tunnel syndrome: Your median nerve branch runs through your wrist inside its carpal tunnel. The tissue inside the tunnel can swell from intense hand and wrist activity and put pressure on the nerve, which can cause wrist pain and sometimes tingling, weakness, or numbness.

Diagnosing Wrist Pain

Healing from wrist pain begins with a correct diagnosis. This will always include an examination, often involve imaging, and sometimes include arthroscopy. These methods aim to get the best possible view of your wrist and its needs.

• Examination: The expertise of our orthopedic surgeons and physician assistants can’t be replaced. Their experience with the highest levels of orthopedic care results in confident, accurate, and efficient wrist examinations for any problem.
• Imaging: The four standard ways to non-invasively see inside your wrist include: X-ray imaging, which can reveal obvious bone fractures and osteoarthritis; CT scans, which can show very subtle fractures; MRI imaging, which can identify bone and soft tissue problems; and ultrasound imaging, which can reveal cysts and damaged tendons and ligaments.
• Arthroscopy: At times, a surgeon must look directly at what is going on in your wrist. Arthroscopy inserts a camera into your wrist through a small incision for a close-up view of the problem.

Treatment of Wrist Pain

With a complete understanding of the latest orthopedic practices and thinking, our Orthopedic Specialists of North Texas team create treatment plans specifically tailored to each patient, no matter how straightforward or complicated a case of wrist pain may be.

Treatments designed for each patient can range from slight changes of habit and routine to medications that reduce swelling and pain, stabilization with splints or casts, minor or major surgery, or any combination of these. It all depends on what you need. And any treatment is usually followed by simple or extensive physical therapy, which can also be done here at the Orthopedic Specialists of North Texas clinic, if not at home.

The knowledge, experience, and expertise of our orthopedic surgeons and physician’s assistants at Orthopedic Specialists of North Texas will start you down the road to recovery as quickly as possible. Our dedicated team will be with you until the best possible results are achieved.

Pain in the wrist, female hands close-up by Marco Verch is licensed with CC BY 2.0