Carpal bones

Looks like

Eight pebbles in two rows between forearm and palm, roofed by a tight band.

What it does

Let the wrist bend, tilt and rotate while staying stable.

Keeping it well

Fall on an outstretched hand and the boat-shaped one breaks; a wrist that still hurts a week later needs a second X-ray.

Its parts

• Right trapezoid
• Right lunate
• Right triquetral
• Right pisiform
• Right trapezium
• Right capitate
• Right hamate
• Left lunate
• Left triquetral
• Left pisiform
• Left trapezium
• Left trapezoid
• Left capitate
• Left hamate
• Capitate
• Hamate
• Lunate
• Pisiform
• Trapezium
• Trapezoid
• Triquetral

Related conditions

• Acromegaly
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• De Quervain's tenosynovitis
• Dupuytren's contracture & trigger finger
• Fractures
• Fragility fracture
• Frailty & falls in older age
• Ganglion cyst
• Hyperparathyroidism
• Juvenile idiopathic arthritis
• Osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease)
• Osteomalacia & rickets
• Osteomyelitis (bone infection)
• Osteoporosis
• Paget's disease of bone
• Pseudogout (calcium pyrophosphate disease)
• Raynaud's phenomenon
• Repetitive strain & overuse injury
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Sarcoma
• Vitamin B1, C and other deficiencies
• Vitamin D deficiency