Wrist dislocation

Wrist fractures or sprains may occur when you fall onto your front and land on your hands or grab an object while you fall. As you land on your palm, your wrist bends backwards, which can stretch and perhaps tear the ligaments that connect the bones within the joint. The resulting injury is a sprain. A sprain is treated by resting the hand, cooling and compressing the swelling with a plastic bandage.

If you fall onto your outstretched wrist it is more likely that you break it. Most of the time a fractured bone is very obvious because the area around the broken bone is painful, swollen or deformed. Your wrist bone, however, can break without you actually noticing it and you may think it is sprained. A broken wrist is treated by immobilising it in a cast.