The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery

Image Quiz
Pain in the Hand in a Baseball Player¹
A twenty-one-year-old male baseball player presented to our sports clinic with swelling of the right hand and gradually increasing pain of about one month's duration. The patient had been playing baseball approximately two hours each day. He first noticed slight pain and swelling on the dorsum of the right hand at the end of batting practice. The pain was relieved by rest and was exacerbated by practice. There was no recent history of trauma.
Examination revealed tenderness dorsally over the trapezoid bone, with slight swelling in the same area. Axial compressive stress applied to the index finger induced pain in the same area; however, there was no pain with distraction of the index finger. There was no limitation of flexion or extension of the fingers or wrist. Anteroposterior and lateral radiographs of the hand revealed unremarkable findings. A technetium bone scan and magnetic resonance image were acquired.
Fig. 1	Fig. 2	For larger view, click on image
Fig. 1 Technetium bone scan. Fig. 2 T2-weighted sagittal magnetic resonance image of the hand (repetition time, 2200 msec; echo time, 100 msec)