- See: Ligaments of the Wrist
- Discussion:
- lunotriquetral interosseous ligament tear - relatively frequent occurance;
- scapholunate dissociation - less frequent occurance;
- ulnocarpal impaction syndrome (which can also mimic TFCC tear);
- impingement of distal ulna on the carpi;
- patients may have increased ulnar variance;
- RU joint instability:
- distal radius frx:
- injury to triangular fibrocartilage is an often unrecognized element of distal radius fractures;
- according to the report by Richards, et al (1997), TFCC tears occurred in 53% of extra-articular distal radius fractures vs 35% of intra-articular fractures;
- in the report by Lindau T, et al, the authors performed a prospective study to determine whether peripheral tears of the triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFCC) in patients younger than the osteoporotic age (males,<60 years; females, <50 years) were related to chronic distal radioulnar joint (DRUJ) instability;
- 51 patients (27 women) with displaced distal radial fractures were included in the study;
- arthroscopy at the time of fracture showed complete or partial TFCC tears in 43 patients (24 had only peripheral tears, 10 had only central perforations, and 9 had combined tears);
- 10 of the 11 patients with complete peripheral TFCC tears had DRUJ instability at the follow-up examination compared with 7 of the 32 patients with only partial or no peripheral tears;
- instability was not associated with any radiographic finding either at the time of fracture or at the follow-up examination.
- initial fracture or nonunion of the styloid was even slightly more common in stable patients.
- ulnar styloid frx;
- in the report by Richards, et al (1997), no correlation between ulnar styloid frx and TFCC tears could be found;
- Peripheral tears of the triangular fibrocartilage complex cause distal radioulnar joint instability after distal radial fractures
- Arthroscopic diagnosis of intra-articular soft tissue injuries associated with distal radial fractures.
- diff dx:
- diff dx includes: ECU tendinitis, occult frx, DJD of the pisoform-triquetral joint, and RU joint instability