Wrist and Hand Overuse Injuries with a Special Focus on Soft Tissue Involvement

Overuse injuries of the hand and wrist result from repetitive use or recurrent direct trauma, most often related to work or sports involving repetitive movements and weight-bearing. These stress-induced injuries affect a wide range of tissues, including tendons and tenosynovium, ligaments, neurovascular structures, cartilage, and bone. In athletes, although overuse injuries are less likely than acute traumatic injuries to cause long-term disability, untreated cases can significantly impair athletic performance. Magnetic resonance imaging plays a pivotal role in accurate diagnosis by demonstrating the bone, tendons, ligaments, nerves, and soft-tissue structures. Understanding the mechanisms of injury and their imaging appearance is essential for correct diagnosis and appropriate treatment planning. This review provides an overview of imaging findings in hand and wrist overuse injuries, with a specific focus on soft-tissue lesions. Bone lesions are reviewed extensively in a prior article in this journal.