In a sport that involves punching other people, it is not surprising that the bones of the hand occasionally get broken. In fact, hand fractures are so common in the sport that a break of the metacarpal (the bones inside your palm that connect the fingers to the wrist) is called a ‘boxer’s fracture’.
Although a classic boxer’s fracture involves the metacarpal of the ring finger (3rd metacarpal) or little finger (4th metacarpal), mixed martial artist Anthony Smith suffered a break of his 1st metacarpal during a UFC fight in June 2019. Smith posted a photo of his post-fight x-ray on Twitter and later noted that it was the “sixth or seventh” hand fracture of his career. Read more about Smith’s injury here.
A broken metacarpal is often easy to diagnose with a physical examination, primarily due to notable discomfort and deformity in the region of the break. However, a fracture must always be examined with x-rays in order to check the exact location and extent of the break.
The arrow in the image below indicates the subtle shadow that shows the location of a 5th metatarsal bone fracture after impact in a boxing match.
Note: image is an example – not that of the athlete named above.
X-ray images show bones, fractures and the position of fragments extremely well in contrast to the surrounding tissue, so they are the first choice for the assessment of fractures. In severe cases, with multiple fracture fragments or dislocated fragments, CT is useful because it can be used to create reconstructions of the injured area with multiple planes of view or in 3D.
For more information about hand fractures, click here.