A 38-year-old new mother presents with pain over the radial side of the wrist aggravated by lifting her infant. There is tenderness over the radial styloid, and pain is reproduced when the thumb is adducted across the palm and the wrist is deviated ulnarly. The structures involved are the tendons of which compartment?

• A Third dorsal extensor compartment
• B Second dorsal extensor compartment
• C First dorsal extensor compartment ✓
• D Sixth dorsal extensor compartment

Explanation

De Quervain tenosynovitis is stenosing tenosynovitis of the abductor pollicis longus and extensor pollicis brevis within the first dorsal compartment at the radial styloid. The test described is Finkelstein test, which is diagnostic. The third compartment contains extensor pollicis longus, whose rupture produces a different picture, and the sixth compartment contains extensor carpi ulnaris on the ulnar side.

Reference: Miller's Review of Orthopaedics, 8th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.