Osteoarthritis of the Wrist

Initial treatment of a painful osteoarthritic wrist is simple pain killers and supporting the wrist with a splint. Cortisone injections into the wrist may relieve the pain, but the effect is unpredictable and likely to be temporary. If painful arthritis of the wrist fails to be controlled by conservative measures, then surgical options include key hole surgery combined with removing two nerve branches which transmit the pain sensation from the wrist, removing some of the bones in the wrist (proximal row carpectomy), fusing some of the bones together or fusing the whole wrist.

Post-operative X-rays of a total wrist fusion