Carpal Instability after Reduction of Perilunate Dislocation

Abstract

The recognition of carpal instability as a clinical entity is relatively recent. The relationship between perilunate dislocation and dorsiflexed intercalated segment instability of the wrist is a matter of controversy.
In the wrists of seventeen patients treated by closed reduction or open reduction, fourteen perilunar dislocations with fractures of the scaphoid and other bones and three perilunar dislocations without fractures, a roentgenographic analysis was carried out. After injury, twelve of the seventeen patients had open reductions of their dislocations and five of the seventeen had closed reduction.
From these studies, it was concluded that the cases of the Perilunate dislocations with non-union of the scaphoid had the tendency to leave with a carpal deformity characteristic of dorsiflexion instability.