Wrist Pain

Wrist pain is common and can occur for numerous reasons. Our wrists are flexible joints designed to position our hand for function and tolerate loads while lifting, pulling, pushing and weight bearing. The functional demands placed on our wrists are high. The wrist is a complex area of body with multiple joints, ligaments and tendons that work cohesively together. When a part of this cohesive unit isn’t working properly, wrist pain can occur.

Common causes for wrist pain are:

• Injured or torn ligaments in the wrist, causing instability
• Unknown carpal fractures
• Inflamed tendons from overuse or trauma
• Pain, weakness and stiffness following a broken wrist
• The presence of a ganglion in the wrist
• Instability as a result of hypermobility
• Anatomical variations causing altered biomechanics of the wrist function (eg. ulnar abutment syndrome)
• Inflamed joints from repetitive weight bearing (eg. gymnast wrist)
• Conditions that result in the poor vascularity of a wrist bone, resulting in bone degradation (eg. some scaphoid fractures or Keinbock’s disease)

At Geelong Hand Therapy, we provide a comprehensive assessment to determine the cause of wrist pain in our patients, and create an individualised treatment plan according to the needs of each patient.

If you have wrist pain, check out our blog about wrist stability here for more information on how the wrist works