Therapeutic interest of wrist arthroscopy.

Wrist arthroscopy is a relatively recent procedure, described in the1970’s. During the first period of the 1980’s it became an indisputabletechnique of diagnosis. Since the 1990’s many therapeuticprocedure were described by several authors all over the world.This technique increases a lot the understanding of wrist pathologiesand improves significantly the results for patients. We reportour experience about 1000 wrist arthroscopies between 1998 and2005.The patients were always operated on an outpatient basis underlocal regional anaesthesia. The arm was laid on the table and thehand on in-line traction (5-7 kg). We used a 2.4 mm arthroscope,30° angled. Both joints, radiocarpal and midcarpal, were systematicallyexplored. The small portals were not closed.In our experience, only 42 arthroscopies (4 %) were without surgicalprocedure.We separated the indications in 7 chapters :1. Arthroscopic assistance for fractures treatment (distal radius andscaphoid: 7 %);2. TFCC tears (17 %);3. Treatment of intrinsic ligaments tears (scapholunate and lunotriquetral:21%);4. Ectomy (radial styloidectomy, wafer, carpal boss : 13 %);5. Resection of wrist ganglia (21%);6. Partial prosthesis (2,5 %);7. Others techniques (arthrolysis, synovectomy… 14,5 %)