Radiology of the Wrist and Hand

The diagnostic modalities for hand and wrist pathologies have attained rapid advancement over a decade. Despite these advancements, the humble radiograph still remains the single most important imaging modality for the hand and wrist. The wrist is a compact structure composed of eight carpal bones packed together in a relatively small space, which makes reading the wrist X-ray a daunting task but an interesting exercise which is worth mastering to minimize the use of costlier investigations. Standard projections for the wrist are posteroanterior and lateral views. Some authors also consider the oblique view as part of the standard views. An appropriate combination of the views will help the clinician to better analyse the underlying pathology in the preliminary stages of investigations using these conventional radiographs, which should always be preceded by accurate clinical examination. The following section of this chapter describes the standard radiographic views of the wrist first and proceeds to describe any ancillary views and finally dynamic studies using these projections followed by radiographic views of hand.