Wrist plan.....

[rickbucinell]

Dear Doc

I recently suffered a dorsal side, medial region injury to my wrist. the injury occured during a clean and jerk attempt were I missed the clean and instead of hitting my chest with the clean it landed on my hands causing a major contraction and release on the flex ors attaching to the wrist. I put an ultrasound on it to try and determine if there was a fracture as a result of compression, (none). There is only an acute pain when the wrist is in dorsal flex. I have been icing repeatedly since 2-13-06 Will an attachment type injury take much longer to heal than a muscle strain or pull and which rehab modality should I stick with?

Rick

[drjbozzelle]

Sorry so late on the answer, when you say dorsal medial region, I assume you are talking about the side of the wrist away from the thumb. Please keep in mind:
1. Painless ultrasound to the area does NOT rule out a fracture. Persistent pain should be imaged (xray, MRI) U/S is also not a very good imaging tool for fractures.
2. I have had these injuries before, and they are usually due to stretch at the mucle-tendon junction of the flexor muscles.
3. There may also be some ligament damage to the small ligaments holding the small carpal bones together.
4. For a while, you may need to wrap your wrists for upper body exercises. This is not necessarily for support, but for proprioceptive feedback.
5. As tolerated (usually pain free) wrist curls/extensions w/ light weight and high reps
6. Anti-inflammatory as needed (ibuprofen, ie. advil, motrin)
7. Cont. icing at least 4x/day
8. Let me know how this goes

DrJBozzelle