Review of the Literature and Case Report of Surgical Treatment of a Neglected Dislocation of Hamate

Introduction: Hamate dislocation is an uncommon injury, and there are only 17 reported cases in the literature. Ten of them are isolated injuries, and in 7 cases the hamate dislocation is a part of other injuries of the hand. Hamate dislocation can be caused by both direct and indirect forces, or as a part of complex injury of the wrist and hand. Case Report: A case report of a 26-year-old man who presented with a machine injury to his hand with a volar hamate dislocation which was initially missed in the Emergency department as a volar lacerated wound of the hand and was subsequently discovered in the Orthopaedic clinic 6 weeks later. Conclusion: This is only the second report in literature of a neglected hamate dislocation being surgically treated and the 18th reported case of a hamate dislocation over the last 130 years. The direction of dislocation depends on the direction of force applied. Surgical treatment with fixation is optimal even for neglected cases. There was no incidence of avascular necrosis of hamate reported, reflecting the almost equal volar and dorsal blood supply of the hamate.