Do you experience a dull and aching pain or soreness in your wrist during or after playing racket or paddle sports? Does your wrist feel stiff when reaching for low balls or flicking your wrist for those difficult and awkward shots? If you answered yes and your symptoms are located on the “pinky” side of your paddle wrist, then you have ulnar sided wrist pain. Pain in this region can be anything from wrist arthritis, tendon irritation, joint instability, or triangular fibrocartilage (TFCC) injury.

Sometimes mood disorders like depression can be partially caused by serious hand or arm injuries, especially if a patient has to adjust to a new disability, chronic pain, or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from a traumatic event. However, it is less likely for a hand injury to cause depression than for depression to cause a more painful and limiting experience for a patient after an injury. After a hand injury, patients with depression are much more likely to suffer PTSD than patients without depression who experience a hand injury. Depression and PTSD after a hand injury often worsen a patient’s general health status.

Boxer’s fractures are very common hand injuries. The typical cause is striking a hard surface with a clenched fist – such as punching a wall. These injuries can also occur in contact sports, automobile collisions, altercations, or falling to the ground on an outstretched hand.