The Mirror's Health , Lifestyle and Fashion
Are you suffering from a wrist sprain?
These structures are tough and usually connect one bone to the other and prevent joints in the body from moving into an abnormal position. Injury to these structures may be partial or a complete damage of the structures.
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Wrist joint
The wrist joint consists of small bones neatly fitted together to make movement at the joint possible. Its functions are to allow you to bend and straighten your hand. In order to write, paint, wash clothes or perform your daily tasks, whether at work or at home, you should be able to bend and straighten your hand without any limitations.
There are other structures around the wrist joint which offer protection from the impact that the bones have on one another whenever you move your hand. Sometimes while performing certain movements, you may place undue stress on your wrist joint and cause an injury.
Wrist sprains usually occur during sports such as cycling, or in certain ball games such as basketball, volleyball, baseball and football.
Signs and symptoms of wrist sprain
Individuals with a wrist sprain feel an immediate pain as they perform their daily tasks or a specific activity. Some individuals may also experience stiffness and pain the next day after that particular activity was performed.
The pain may be on the sides, back or front of the wrist joint. Sometimes, the pain may be felt in the hand or forearm, especially when performing activities that require the individual to lift heavy objects, grasp objects for prolonged periods or place a lot of weight on the wrist.
Some individuals may also experience weakness and swelling in the wrist and hand which makes it difficult to move the wrist or hold objects.
Wrist sprains can be mild to severe according to how the structures are stretched or torn. In a mild wrist sprain, the strong cords are only stretched and not torn and is considered to be a mild injury. The individual may experience swelling and pain around the wrist joint but may still be able to bend and straighten the wrist with a little limitation.
Weakness in the joint at this point may also be minimal; therefore, the individual may be able to perform daily tasks.
In a moderate sprain, there is a partial tear in the surrounding structures of the wrist joint causing more swelling and pain than in the mild sprain. The swelling may involve the wrist and the hand and this reduces the movement or activities that can be performed daily.
In the severe wrist sprain, the structures are completely torn and there is a great deal of limitation in the movement of the wrist, making daily activities impossible. The individual also experiences weakness in the affected hand.
What are the risk factors of a wrist sprain?
The main cause is a forceful bending of the wrist; hence, causing one or more of the surrounding structures to overstretch or tear. A wrist sprain usually occurs as a result of a fall on the outstretched hand on a hard surface.
It may also occur in individuals with poor lifting techniques such as in weight lifters or as a result of repetitive or overuse of the wrist joint for example in painting, the individual repeatedly bends and straightens the hand continuously and without adequate rest in-between painting he may develop an injury in the wrist joint.
Diagnosis
The individual is taken through a thorough physical examination and specific questions are asked to assist with how the individual was injured and also to determine the likely structures that are affected.
Investigations such as X-rays may be required to find out whether there are any broken bones in the wrist joint or affected upper limb.
