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April 2002
By Theodore E. Keats, MD
A 22-year-old woman injured her wrist in a fall. The wrist is now
swollen and tender. What is your interpretation of the frontal projection
of her wrist?
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ANSWER
The correct diagnosis is scapholunate dissociation, confirmed by
the wide gap between the lunate and the scaphoid (left and center
arrows) and the target-like appearance of the scaphoid (right arrow).
These radiologic findings are consistent with tears of the ventral
radiocarpal ligaments and the scapholunate interosseous ligament
complex.
For further reading, see Resnick, D: Bone and Joint Imaging, 2nd
ed., Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders, 1996, p. 772.
Emerg Med 34(4):61, 2002
This series of diagnostic quizzes that challenge your ability
to read a variety of x-ray films is edited by Dr. Keats, professor
of radiology and professor of orthopedics at the University of Virginia
School of Medicine in Charlottesville.
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