Skafulonar Ligament Injury

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Skafulonar Ligament Injury and what you need to understand?

Bismillahirahmanirahim ,The scafolunar ligament, as the name implies, is a ligament or connective tissue that connects the scaphoid bone and lunatum bone. These ligaments make both bones stable with each other as long as the wrist movements bend up and down. This ligament is one of the wrist ligaments that is often injured. The mechanism of injury to the ligament resembles the mechanism that causes TFCC injury, which relies on the hand when falling. If a TFCC injury causes pain on the side of the little finger, the scafolunar ligament injury causes pain in the center of the wrist.
         The diagnosis of torn scafolunar ligaments is established through physical examination, x-rays, and other imaging such as MRI. Generally, the scapholunar ligament tear will cause the scaphoid bone to spin away from the lunatum bone, which will be seen as the distance between the scaphoid and lunatum on X-ray examination.


       The distance between the two bones resembles the distance on the two front teeth as actor Terry Thomas. This 'Terry Thomas' sign shows chronic and more severe tears, which cannot be corrected by a simple procedure. Ideally, the diagnosis of skafolunar ligament tear is confirmed before the 'Terry Thomas sign' is seen. Scafolunar ligament tear is also not rarely detected during arthroscopic procedures for diagnosis or treatment of other conditions in the wrist. Scafolunar ligament repair can be done through arthroscopy. Arthroscopy is a diagnostic and therapeutic action that aims to see (-copy) into the joint (artros-) to repair any damage found. Arthroscopy is done by making a small incision and then inserting a pencil-sized device consisting of a camera and lamp to see the structure inside the joint. The device is then connected to the monitor so that the doctor and patient can see the inside of the joint. To repair torn ligaments, doctors usually perform a reconstruction procedure to connect the torn ligament.
     untreated scafolunar igaments will cause instability in the scapholunar joint. Chronic instability will cause changes in the wrist joint, known as SLAC (scapholunate advanced collapse), where the scafolunar ligament injury causes weakness of the thumb side of the wrist.

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