Syed Mujahid Humail, Manzoor Ahmed, Saleem Khan, Hassan Dost Afridi.
Cystic swellings on hands and wrist common pitfalls.
Med Channel Jan ;12(3):43-5.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the etiopathological causes of simple cystic swellings of Hand and wrist. DESIGN: Prospective / retrospective descriptive study. PLACE AND DURATION OF 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. MATERIAL & METHODS: A total of 87 patients, who had cyctic swellings in hand and wrist were operated. Apart from simple ganglian, other pathological lesions were found. RESULT: 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. CONCLUSION: All cystic swellings in hand and wrist are not ganglion, they could be, from infection to malignancy.

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