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The Incidence of Asymptomatic Kienböck’s DiseaseFrom the Department of Hand and Microsurgery, University of Limpopo – MEDUNSA Campus and Dr George Mukhari Hospital, South Africa Correspondence: Prof. Ulrich Mennen, 374 Lawley Street, Waterkloof, Pretoria 0181, South Africa., Tel.: +27-12-4216 739; fax: +27-12-3466968., E-mail:umennen{at}icon.co.za. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of asymptomatic Kienböck’s disease in patients who attended the Dr George Mukhari Hospital (formerly Ga-Rankuwa Hospital), as well as the relevance of ulnar variance on the disease. This was a retrospective study. In a 12 month period we reviewed postero-anterior radiographs of 1287 patients seen at our radiology department, with complaints unrelated to the upper limb including the wrist and hand. We identified 23 cases (1.9%) of asymptomatic Lichtman stage II–IV Kienböck’s disease in our African population. The majority (63%) were male with an average age of 49 years, and 37% were female with an average age of 46.5 years. All cases were unilateral and all were in the dominant hand. Thirteen cases (57%) had an ulnar neutral wrist and the remaining ten (43%) had an ulnar negative variance. The vast majority (83%) were unemployed. Analysis of the data shed no further light on the aetiology. The relevance of ulnar variance as an aetiological factor is questioned.
Key Words: Kienböck’s disease • asymptomatic • ulnar variance
Journal of Hand Surgery (European Volume), Vol. 34, No. 3,
348-350 (2009) |
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