How many wrist bones

This is where the radius — the thicker forearm bone — connects with the bottom row of wrist bones: the scaphoid, lunate and triquetrum bones. This joint is mainly on the thumb side of your wrist. This is the joint between the ulna — the thinner forearm bone — and the lunate and triquetrum wrist bones.

This is the pinky finger side of your wrist. It connects the bottom ends of the radius and ulna. The hand bones between your fingers and wrist are made up of five long bones called metacarpals.

They make up the bony part at the back of your hand. Wrist bones, ligaments, tendons, muscles and nerves can be injured or damaged. Common wrist injuries and conditions include:. You can sprain your wrist by stretching it too far or carrying something heavy. The most common place for a wrist sprain is at the ulnocarpal joint — the joint between the arm bone and wrist bone on the pinky finger side of the hand. Also called ulnocarpal abutment, this wrist condition happens when the ulna arm bone is slightly longer than the radius.

This makes the ulnocarpal joint between this bone and your wrist bones less stable. Impaction syndrome can lead to increased contact between the ulna and carpal bones, leading to pain and weakness. You can get wrist joint pain from arthritis. This can happen from normal wear and tear or an injury to the wrist. You can also get rheumatoid arthritis from an immune system imbalance. Arthritis can happen in any of the wrist joints. You can fracture any of the bones in your hand from a fall or other injury.

The most common kind of fracture in the wrist is a distal radius fracture. A scaphoid fracture is the most commonly broken carpal bone. This is the large bone on the thumb side of your wrist. It can fracture when you try to catch yourself in a fall or collision with an outstretched hand.

Common injuries to the wrist happen from doing the same movements with your hands and wrists repeatedly for a long time. This includes typing, texting, writing, and playing tennis. They can cause swelling, numbness , and pain in the wrist and hand. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission.

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This content does not have an Arabic version. See more conditions. Hand and wrist bones. It connects the forearm to the hand and allows a good range of motion. Repetitive use does however frequently lead to injuries. The Ulna is the larger of the two forearm bones, although it tapers at the wrist end, to become narrower than the Radius at this point.

The Radius is positioned on the thumb side of the wrist, and the ulna on the little finger side. They form the wrist joint with the carpal bones. Altogether there are 8 carpal bone which are arranged in two rows, proximal and distal. The scaphoid bone crosses both rows as it is the largest carpal bone. The scaphoid and the lunate are the two bones which actually articulate with the radius and ulna to form the wrist joint. The human hand consists of a broad palm metacarpus with 5 digits, attached to the forearm by a joint called the wrist carpus.

The four fingers on the hand are used for the outermost performance; these four digits can be folded over the palm which allows the grasping of objects.