Clinical Examination of the Wrist: A Guide to Classifying Wrist Pain

Presented by Jamie L. Bergner

12-Month Subscription

Unlimited access to:

  • Thousands of CE Courses
  • Patient Education
  • Home Exercise Program
  • And more
Video Runtime: 81 Minutes; Learning Assessment Time: 39 Minutes

Have you ever been referred a patient with the diagnosis of wrist pain? How do you sort important information from the history and still perform a consistent evaluation that appropriately identifies pertinent injuries all in the constraints of your busy schedule? This course will hone your evaluation skills of the wrist and teach a basic clinical examination that will guide the selection of special tests and palpation.

Meet your instructor

Jamie L. Bergner

Jamie L. Bergner has more than 20 years of clinical expertise as an experienced occupational therapist specializing in the care of clients after hand and upper extremity trauma, injury, and surgery. She is a Certified Hand Therapist (CHT) and a Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist (COMT) working at a level 1 trauma center…

Read full bio

Chapters & learning objectives

History Taking: The Client’s Profile

1. History Taking: The Client’s Profile

This chapter provides an overview of the evaluation process for wrist conditions and provides a framework for history taking to sort information and classify conditions based on risk factors and etiology. This portion of the wrist examination is important to understand the client’s functional impairments and to look for patterns and potential causes of impairment.

Movement Assessment: Hidden Clues for the Categorization of Wrist Pain

2. Movement Assessment: Hidden Clues for the Categorization of Wrist Pain

This chapter will increase the skill set of the clinician to look beyond objective goniometer measurements for a deeper understanding of the quality of movement and what the limitations in movement reveal for functional implications. Further classification of impairment will assist with developing a more accurate hypothesis for reason for pain.

Resistive and Stretch Tests: Categorizing Tendinopathy Versus Tenosynovitis of the Wrist

3. Resistive and Stretch Tests: Categorizing Tendinopathy Versus Tenosynovitis of the Wrist

Course participants will learn a fast and efficient but comprehensive way of categorizing wrist pain as either a tendinopathy or tendinosis and further identify the cause for wrist pain.

Clinical Decision-Making: A Problem-Solving Approach

4. Clinical Decision-Making: A Problem-Solving Approach

This chapter will interpret the test results and apply clinical decision-making algorithms to aid clinicians in forming a hypothesis for the reason for wrist pain. The hypothesis will be used to streamline selection of special tests and of structures to palpate.