What is a Metacarpal Fracture?
A metacarpal fracture is a fracture (break) of the tubular bones within the palm (metacarpals). They classically occur in the small finger metacarpal bone in boxers or athletes of other pugilistic sports or activities. This type of fracture has therefore become to be known as a “boxer’s fracture.” Each of the digits of the hand has a corresponding metacarpal bone associated with it, and any of these metacarpals may be fractured during a high energy impact to an athlete’s hand. These injuries are also common in other sports besides boxing. For example Ronnie Brown of the Miami Dolphins and Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys each spent time on the IR from suffering a metacarpal fracture as did the Mavericks Jason Terry who had surgery to fix his metacarpal fracture. What is the anatomy of the region? The metacarpals are the tubular bones that comprise most of the space in the palm. Each of the fingers (digits) has a corresponding metacarpal that links the wrist bones to the phalanges (indiv
