Hand and Wrist Fractures

The bones in a normal hand line up precisely, letting you perform many specialized functions like grasping a pen or manipulating small objects in your palm. When you fracture a finger bone, it can put your whole hand out of alignment. Without treatment, your broken finger may stay stiff and painful.

Sometimes a bone can break without you realizing it. That's usually what happens to the scaphoid bone in your wrist, a boat-shaped bone located on the outermost side of the thumb side of the hand. Many people with a fractured scaphoid think they have a sprained wrist instead of a broken bone because there is no obvious deformity and very little swelling.

Our Approach to Hand and Wrist Fractures

UCSF offers world-class care for both simple and complex injuries, including broken bones in the hand or wrist. Most such fractures can be treated with a splint or cast to hold the bone in place while it heals. Other cases require surgery.

Our team includes highly trained orthopedic surgeons who specialize in treating the hand, wrist and arm. They provide expert repair of hand and wrist fractures using state-of-the-art techniques and technology.