Congenital perforation of the triangular fibrocartilage of the wrist.

The triangular fibrocartilages (TFC) of 136 wrist joints from 48 fetuses and 20 infants fresh cadavers without any evidence of known deformity and injury were studied. Perforations of the TFC were found not only in infants (18.8%), but also in fetuses (25%). The difference between the incidences of the perforations in the two groups is not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Furthermore, we did not find that perforation of the TFC is correlated with either sex or side of wrists (P > 0.05). Histologically, the vascularity and cellularity of the TFC have no significant correlation with the absence or presence of perforation in it. We believe that, besides trauma, inflammation and degeneration, some perforations of the TFCs are congenital in origin, which all take the form of fissure and are located mainly in the radial half of the TFC.