Joe A Shaw PA-C - 3/2/2009

Question
I injured my wrist approx. 5 months ago, I had negative x-rays soon after the injury and did not seek any further treatment, however, it has been painful when I twist, strain, or have resistance to it so I was sent for an MRI - I have copied the "findings" below -

"Mildly abnormal marrow of the lunate carpal bone with no fracture, possibly a contusion"

This wasn't a high impact injury, since he says "possible contustion", what are the other possibilities, should I request a different test or is it normal for a contusion to take this long to heal?  

Answer
Nicole,
Some times bone bruises can take a long time to "heal", especially if they are being reaggravated some how, but what you need to rule out is if there is any ligament damage..(ie tears)The most common one is a TFCC tear of the wrist(google this) caused by twisting or torquing of the wrist among other things.
You may need to get an arthrogram-this is where dye is injected into certain areas of the wrist joint and then images are taken to see if any of the dye "leaked" out of its compartment thus indicating some type of tear. You don't give your age but as we age, we can naturally have some breaking down and such of these ligament compartments causing some leakage. So in 45-50 yr old and greater, this test may not be totally accurate at detecting a "new tear"..but like anything you have to take the history, exam etc...together to try and come up with a diagnosis.