PITFALLS IN THE RADIOLOGIC EVALUATION OF EXTREMITY TRAUMA - PART I - THE UPPER EXTREMITY

Family physicians often are required to evaluate patients who present with acute skeletal trauma. The first of this two-part series discusse s the features and evaluation of some commonly missed fractures and di slocations 4 the upper limb, excluding the hand. Dislocations of the s ternoclavicular joint are infrequent and often missed. Clavicular frac tures in adults usually are not hard to diagnose. Acromioclavicular jo int dislocations represent about 10 percent of all dislocation injurie s to the shoulder girdle. Forty percent of all dislocations occur at t he glenohumeral joint, Scapular fractures are often a result of signif icant force. Multiple views should be obtained in adults with a suspec ted fracture of the elbow. Complications in fractures of the wrist are strongly related to the location of the fracture.