Cystic swellings on hands and wrist common pitfalls

ABSTRACT

To determine the etiopathological causes of simple cystic swellings of Hand and wrist. Prospective / retrospective descriptive study. Orthopaedic Department of Sindh Government Lyari General hospital, Dow University of Health Sciences Karachi and Remedial Centre Hospital Karachi from January 2005 to April 2006. A total of 87 patients, who had cyctic swellings in hand and wrist were operated. Apart from simple ganglian, other pathological lesions were found. In 87 patients who had surgery, 63 [72.4%]had wrist swelling while 24 [27.6%] had hand swelling. In 71 [81.6%] patients the cystic swelling was ganglion while 16 [18.4%] had other pathology. Out of that 10 were giant cell tumors of tendon sheath, 1 was spindle cell carcinoma, 1 was fibroma, 3 cases were tuberculosis and 1 case of lipoma. All cystic swellings in hand and wrist are not ganglion, they could be, from infection to malignancy