[Wrist trauma: diagnostic imaging]

Wrist injury is common throughout life and, although history and physical examination provide important information regarding the type of lesion, a radiological study is essential to determine a specific diagnosis. Conventional radiography plays a central role in the wrist injuries but the diffusion of more sensitive methodics offers new possibilities. Our purpose is to evaluate the role of computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR) and arthrography in wrist trauma. We retrospectively examined the images of 45 patients with wrist injuries: in every patients a radiological examination in 4 standard projections was executed while in 25, 9 and 11 patients CT,MR and arthrography were performed. On the basis of our findings we think that conventional radiography is often sufficient for diagnosis of bone lesions even if CT sometimes is required to detect subtle fractures. MR has an high sensitivity not only for abnormalities of soft tissues, including interosseous ligaments and triangular fibrocartilage, but also bony abnormalities such as occult fractures and early osteonecrosis. Arthrography still remains the best procedure for evaluating lesions of triangular fibrocartilage and intercarpal ligaments especially in a preoperative phase.