Bracing and rehabilitation for wrist and hand injuries in collegiate athletes.

Athletic injuries of the hand and wrist are common. The key to management of these injuries is prevention. Certain sports require athletes to participate in positions that pose a higher risk of injury to the fingers and wrists. Once healing of the injured digit and wrist has occurred, rehabilitation of the injury is important. This requires close communication between the therapist and the strength and conditioning coach to allow strengthening exercises but limit traction to the involved injury in order to limit the risk of reinjury. Finally, once the injury has been rehabilitated, protective playing casts and splints are useful to allow the athlete to return early to competition and to decrease the risk of reinjury.