Hi, 3 weeks ago I fell in my wrist & was told I d probably fractured my scaphoid bone. It was put in a Velcro cast for 10 days & told to come back to fracture clinic for it re xraying & they would decide the course if treatment from there. When I attended clinic I was told I wouldn t need an X-ray as they were certain from my original X-ray that I hadn t broken anything, to take my cast off & get it moving again. I mentioned I had a numbness and pins & needles in my thumb but that was put down to the cast I d had on. One week later, I still have a numbness/pins & needles in my thumb & my wrist continues to ache/throb. Is this normal or do I need to go back & be seen again? I don t want to waste anyone s time.
Dear patient, a needles and pins sensation is generally due to a nerve compression/irritation. If it wasn't due to the cast (that's a possibility), probably your trauma provoked a hematoma pressing on a nerve (median nerve? Collateral nerve of the thumb? It depends on numbness distribution). I propose to wait a month from the trauma. If this sensation persist, get an electromyography/electroneurography to objective the nerve injury. If positive, do an RMN of wrist and hand to understand the cause (i.e. hematoma) and project its possible removal. Concerning instead your doubt about a scaphoid fracture, I don't know which X-ray projections you did (scaphoid fractures are hard to be seen in standard X-rays). However, if your wrist remained very painful for 10-15 days after the trauma, a scaphoid X-ray projection or, better, a wrist CT, would solve your doubts