Radiographic imaging of the wrist

Imaging techniques play an important role in evaluating the complex anatomy of bone and soft tissues of the wrist. The standard wrist radiographs and specialized views still form a very important imaging modality to unravel the wrist pathology in their simplest forms. This article discusses the routine radiography of the wrist followed by ancillary views and dynamic studies for each of the routine view described that helps reveal both static and dynamic pathologies. The literature search was carried out using the search strings or key words, and the databases were searched using the time frame of 1990 to 2011 that included Scopus, MD consult, Web of Knowledge, Pub Med, Ovid Medline and Cochrane Library. The print journals and books available at Manipal University library were hand searched and secondary search was done for the relevant articles included in the references of primary articles. Full articles as well as abstracts were used for the review.