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Wk 1, Case 1 - Review

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And this is a 49 year old man with wrist pain in a scapholunate area on and off

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after a fall two years ago and getting worse. So,

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you know, when I hear scapholunate, I go right to the scapholunate ligament,

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which has three components.

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It's got a LAR Co,

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which can be either trapezoid or band like this one's kind of band

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like. And then you get the membranous portion,

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which is kind of T-shaped. And then you get, sorry,

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this is the vola component here, which is more trapezoid shaped.

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Then the membranous component, which is more T-shaped,

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hard to appreciate here, maybe here you could appreciate it.

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And then as you get back, um, into the dorsal aspect, it's more band like.

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And there's the band that, that one is, is definitely clear.

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Let's look at the triangular fibrocartilage. Here's the radial attachment.

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Here's a lunate ligament right here. An ul, no lunate attachment.

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Here's an UL no triquetral attachment and there is the foveal and

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styloid attachments can see them on the gradient echo as well.

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There's your foveal attachment right there. And um,

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styloid attachment probably right there.

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This is a little bit of cartilage from the radius. Uh,

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the LT ligament is very small and stubby. Uh, in this patient. It's hard to see,

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but it's right there. There's no widening whatsoever. There's no widening here.

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So let's go back to the history wrist pain and escap lunate area.

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There are innumerable pseudocyst, but they're not near the joint.

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So these are not what I would describe as arthropathic erosions,

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arthropathic cysts, arthropathic pseudocysts, they are,

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they are more compatible with friction related and there's a lot of friction

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going on in your hand 'cause you're twisting and turning and grabbing all day

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long. So not a lot of, uh, interesting.

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Um, symptom related findings here.

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There is a beautiful view of one of the lar extrinsics

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and these make an inverted V right here. Here's one limb of the V.

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Here's the other limb of the V.

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Let's look at the dorsal extrinsics to see if those pop out for us.

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You can kind of see one right here.

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And they're usually more horizontally oriented. They'll make a sideways V.

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Here's one of the limbs of the v. The other limb, hard to see.

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There's another dorsal extrinsic right there.

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But those don't seem to really be the problem.

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So we've looked at the intrinsics and the extrinsics and,

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and those are not what's, what's causing our problem?

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What is causing our problem is this.

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We've got a fracture of the radial styloid,

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a so-called Barton type fracture, which you've all heard that expression before.

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It's slightly convoluted.

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So that in itself is going to give you the symptom complex that

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resembles a scap o lunate injury. And you'd say, okay,

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game over the question, the clinical question is, is answered.

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Now I

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think it would be easy to say that here is the comminuted little fracture

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fragments of the radial styloid.

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But let's put up the short axis view 'cause we gotta complete the study.

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And here's our sagittal. I'm gonna flip our sagittal right side up

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and it looks a little busy back here.

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Now I like to see my lunate and my capitate and my third metacarpal and my,

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my radius lineup nicely with each other so I can make a straight line through

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them. Something akin to this,

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but I think you can appreciate that the technologist did this to the wrist.

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They slightly dorsiflexed it and you can see that right here.

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But the alignment is otherwise just fine. So let's do a little,

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a little scrolling in this case because anytime you have an injury to the

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to the radius,

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you always have to be worried about an injury to the first

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extensor compartment, especially with a a barton's fracture.

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And that would affect compartment extensor number one,

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which is the abductor lysis,

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longest extensor lysis brevis pay no attention to this structure here,

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which represents the radial artery or this one, the flexor carp radialis.

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So this one is of interest. It's a bit gray over here.

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It's nice and black over here. So this is just magic angle effect,

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it's artifact and our compartment extensor number one is fine. How about two?

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So we got a abductor lysis, long extensor lysis previs, longest previs,

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then longest extensor carpi radis longus and extensor carpi

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radiologist BVIs. Those look fine.

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But then we get into the third extensor compartment.

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That does not look fine.

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That is not black on either the T two or on the T one.

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Now granted you can have gray tendons on the T one from magic angle effect,

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but it shouldn't be gray on the T two weighted image with all of this

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irregularity. So at some point,

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at some point be it this trauma or a prior trauma,

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something happened to lister's tubercle that allowed it to

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damage, to damage the extensor, uh, uh,

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lysis longus.

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Now sometimes you can see extensor lysis pathology as it courses

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over the extensor carp,

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radiologist longus and brevis if you've had a prior injury.

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And this reticulum gets very

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Contracted and snug.

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And this is what's known as wrist intersection syndrome.

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And that's the differential diagnosis here.

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Old lister's tubercle fracture versus wrist

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intersection syndrome from a prior injury, either one.

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Let's keep going. Now we've got the extensor digitorum over here,

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uh,

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the extensor digit minimi and then the extensor carpinus and

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those, those are all present and, and accounted for.

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So let's see if there's anything else that that needs to be commented on

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here. Um, I don't think so.

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You can see that there is this funny little cystic change in lister's tubercle

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that tells us something either post-traumatic and inflammatory has occurred

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here or just post-traumatic with friction has induced a cystic change

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at lister's. Tubercle.

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And this is the extensor lysis longus coursing over the top of it.

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Let's go back to it one more time so you can see it.

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This is the abnormal E P L and somebody with this is gonna have trouble

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extending their thumb. So this is a tricky case.

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You get sucked into the barton's fracture,

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you get sucked into the first extensor compartment and you fail to identify

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a major finding,

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which is a high grade injury or tear to the extensor lysis longness

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with abnormalities of lister tubercle whose differential diagnosis I gave

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to you. Let's just take one more scroll through

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the extensors.

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There was an extensor carris injury and I think

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I'm gonna pass over it right now because we've got a lot more to cover. And, um,

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let's keep going. Shall we.

Report

Patient History
49-year-old male with right wrist pain in the scapholunate area, off and on after a fall 2 years ago and getting worse

Findings

ALIGNMENT:
Ulnar Variance: Normal.

Distal Radioulnar Joint: Mildly displaced, oblique intraarticular fracture at the dorsal aspect of the distal radial epiphysis without evidence of osseous bridging and instability suggested by the presence of subcortical cysts at the fragment margins and mild osteoedema. The Lister tubercle is involved.

Carpal Instability: None.

ARTICULATIONS:
Thumb Carpometacarpal Joint: Normal.

Scaphotrapeziotrapezoidal Joint: Normal.

Pisiform-Triquetral Joint: Normal.

Radiocarpal Joint: Moderate sprain of the dorsal intercarpal ligament.

Distal Radioulnar Joint: Normal.

Fluid: None.

Carpal Effusion: None.

Distal Radioulnar Joint Effusion: None.

INTRINSIC LIGAMENTS:
Scapholunate Ligament: Intact.

Lunotriquetral Ligament: Intact.

Triangular Fibrocartilage: Disc proper, proximal and distal bands of the triangular ligament in their foveal and styloid attachments as well as the meniscus homologous are intact.

Lunate Facet: Normal.

Hamate-Lunate Facet: Normal.

Extensor Compartment:
I: Normal.

II: Normal.

II: Approximately 3cm long split tear of the extensor pollicis longus as it courses over the Lister's tubercle associated with diffuse increased intrasubstance signal intensity and fibrotic changes with fluid distention along the course of its tendon sheath.

IV: Diffuse increased intrasubstance signal intensity and fibrotic changes with fluid distention along the course of the tendon sheath of the extensor digitorum and extensor indicis.

V: Normal.

VI: Tendinopathy with increased intrasubstance signal intensity of the extensor carpi ulnaris as it courses over the ulnar styloid with an intact extensor retinaculum.

Flexor Compartment: Normal.

Carpal Tunnel: No space-occupying lesions in the flexor compartment.

Median Nerve: Normal.

Flexor Retinaculum:

Flexor Tendons: Normal.

Guyon's Canal: Normal.

OTHER FINDINGS:
Skeleton: As described above.
Soft Tissues: As described above.
Vessels: Normal neurovascular bundles.

Impressions
1. Mildly displaced, nonunited intraarticular dorsal Barton fracture with suggestion of instability by the presence of subcortical cysts at the fracture margins. Mild osteoedema. The fracture involves the Lister's tubercle.
2. Long segment split tear of approximately 3cm long involving the extensor pollicis longus as it courses over the Lister's tubercle associated with tenosynovitis, tendinosis and fibrotic changes along its tendon sheath. Suspect a component of crossover syndrome secondary to Lister’s tubercle deformity and a cicatrized extensor retinaculum.
3. Tendinosis and tenosynovitis with fibrotic changes involving the extensor digitorum and extensor indicis.
4. Short-segment split tear and tendinosis of the extensor carpi ulnaris as it courses over the ulnar styloid. Intact extensor retinaculum.

Case Discussion

Faculty

Stephen J Pomeranz, MD

Chief Medical Officer, ProScan Imaging. Founder, MRI Online

ProScan Imaging

Jenny T Bencardino, MD

Vice-Chair, Academic Affairs Department of Radiology

Montefiore Radiology

Todd D. Greenberg, MD

Radiologist

ProScan

Tags

Musculoskeletal (MSK)

MRI

Hand & Wrist