Broken Hand and Wrist Bones
People often fracture or break the bones in their hands or wrists after traumatic injuries. These fractures can cause pain and swelling around the fracture. Fractures can also change the position of your fingers and lead to deformity. Hand fractures are usually closed, meaning that the bone does not protrude (poke) through the skin. Open fractures, where the bones do protrude through the skin require urgent surgery to prevent a bone infection.
Treating a Broken/Fractured Hand
Our fellowship trained hand surgeons in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery have experience in the treatment of bony injuries. We look at many factors when deciding to use surgery to treat a hand or wrist fracture or not. We take the results of your physical exam as well as things like your activities, profession, and other health factors into that decision process. Hand and wrist X-rays allow us to understand how severe a fracture is and further determine if surgery is needed.
If your fracture doesn’t need surgery, your injured hand or wrist is usually placed in a protective splint or a cast for several weeks, allowing bones to heal on their own. If surgery is needed, our hand surgeons work to restore alignment of the bones (called a reduction). They may use hardware such as pins, plates and screws to hold the alignment and encourage appropriate bone healing. Some types of hardware are permanent. Other types are removed.
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What Types of Fractures Do Hand Plastic Surgeons Treat?
All our hand surgeons in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery are fellowship trained and are eligible for or have passed the hand board certification. We treat fractures of the finger bones (phalanges), hand bones (metacarpals), wrist (carpal bones like the scaphoid, lunate or capitate), and the distal radius and ulna.
Complex wrist bone fractures of the scaphoid, lunate or capitate that are not healing can require complicated additional care like a free bone and cartilage flap. These techniques are the mainstay of reconstructive plastic surgery.
From Our Specialists
How Do I Know if I Broke a Bone?
It might be hard to believe, but you can break a bone and not realize it.
Is it Sprained or Fractured?
When you've injured your wrist, it's important to know whether it's fractured or sprained.
Hear From Our Patients
The Luck of the Irish? Not so Fast.
Heather Miller's St. Patrick's Day took an unfortunate turn when she tripped during a neighborhood game, resulting in a broken arm and dislocated wrist. Follow her journey with University of Utah ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ as we helped her fully heal.