Abstract
Studies on the movement of the wrist joint have been increasingly appearing in recent years, especially from the view point of carpal instability. Nevertheless, there have not been many reports which describe the supporting function and movement control ability of ligamentous structures around the wrist joint. A great number of fresh human amputated hands would be required for proper studies, and it would be very difficult to obtain such specimens in Japan due to social reasons. In order to clarify the supporting function and movement control ability of the ligamentous structure around the wrist, we have used wrist joints taken from crab-eating monkeys, which have structures very similar to those of the human wrist. The results suggest that the volar and dorsal ligaments have the supporting function and ability to control during volar-dorsal flexion movement, and also that the volar ligaments possess the ability to cotrol the rotatory movement of the forearm. However the dorsal ligaments have little ability to control the rotatory movement of the forearm.
