MRI of the wrist is a useful tool in children, particularly in the assessment of any injury following a fall.
Though an X-ray may demonstrate a fracture adequately in most instances, there are some circumstances where a fracture is difficult to appreciate or not visible at all. In such scenarios where clinical suspicion for a fracture remains high despite a normal scan, an MRI has the ability to confidently exclude this diagnosis, in particular fractures of the all important scaphoid bone.
The scaphoid bone is one of, if not the, most important bones of the hand and wrist and unfortunately has a tenous blood supply. Lack of detection of scaphoid fractures may lead to interruption of this blood supply, followed by bone death (avascular necrosis) and secondary irreversible arthritis.