Hello,

The most common cause of dorsal wrist pain is TFCC central tear. This occurs in 50% of wrist fractures. The way to examine and test it is quite variable and unreliable. The interrater reliability for TFCC diagnosis is huge. The test to perform is the weight bearing test. Simply have your patient place the palm on a bathroom scale with the elbow straight and push to the point of pain. This may recapture the pain. You may also see a descrepancy in the tolerance from right to left. The other thing to look for is ulnar sided wrist pain with resisted end range supination and pronation and pain with grip.

If you get me the numbers for grip and weight bearing tolerance between right and left, I can tell you.

Another place to look is the EPL. This is commonly ruptured as it crosses the wrist over the plate.

Good luck!

Wendy