Clinical diagnosis of triquetrolunate ligament injuries

The clinical diagnosis of peritriquetral injuries is difficult. We describe our diagnostic technique based on specific questions and three clinical te sts. The accuracy of our diagnostic technique was compared prospectively wi th the definitive diagnosis made at arthroscopy. Preoperatively, 19 patient s were diagnosed as having triquetrolunate dissociation. This was confirmed at arthroscopy in 17. Another five patients not diagnosed preoperatively w ere also diagnosed at arthroscopy as having mainly triquetrolunate dissocia tion. The sensitivity of our diagnostic protocol was 0.77 and the positive predictive value was 0.89.