[Diagnosis of unusual fractures of the wrist bones]

Fractures of the navicular bone are the most frequent fractures in the region of the wrist bone. Injuries of the other carpal bones are often primarily overlooked, since the examiner commands over less routine in diagnosing these rare fractures and the carpal bones are often superimposed over one another. We examined 9.723 x-ray films of the hand performed because of suspected fracture of the os naviculare, in order to find out how often lesions of the carpal bones - with the exception of those of the scaphoid bone - were discovered via the x-ray series of the os naviculare manus. For each individual wrist bone we recorded the incidence of fractures, clinical treatment and diagnoses, including any special x-ray takes that would be necessary for the detection of a particular fracture.