Injuries/Conditions
Hand & Wrist
The most common hand and wrist injuries seen by orthopedic surgeons are tendonitis, fractures and joint injuries.
Tendonitis is usually a chronic overuse type of injury. It happens often in sports (rowing, racquet sports, golf) or activities that involve repetitive hand and wrist motions.
It can also occur in the workplace where many people spend hours at jobs that require a repetitive wrist extension or reflection (carpal tunnel syndrome).
Some of the most traumatic hand and wrist injuries in sports have to do with ligament injuries of the thumb when it impacts another player or the playing surface.
Other common injuries in sports are fractures that can occur as the result of falls in which the impact is absorbed by outstretched hands and wrists.
Elbow
The most common elbow injury is known as “tennis elbow” or tendonitis, which is a degeneration of the tendon on the outside of the elbow of the tendon that extends to the wrist.
It occurs in other sports activities besides tennis, but it’s really a lot more common in the workplace than it is in adult tennis players.
It’s rare to see tennis elbow in young athletes. Instead, it’s more common to see elbow dislocations or ulna collateral ligament sprains, which frequently happen in contact sports like football.
Other common elbow ailments are ulna collateral ligament injuries or ligament tears in athletes who throw. This often occurs in baseball players, particularly to pitchers with overhand throwing, and frequently requires reconstructive surgery.
These injuries also occur in overhand sports such as tennis, racquetball and volleyball that involve the use of overhead hand and arm motions.
