Which symptom is typical of a radial nerve injury?

Study for the NBCOT Hand Injuries and Intervention Test. Prepare with flashcards and multiple choice questions, each question offers hints and explanations. Get ready for success!

Multiple Choice

Which symptom is typical of a radial nerve injury?

Radial nerve injuries disrupt the muscles that extend the wrist and fingers, so the hallmark is a wrist drop with the inability to actively extend the wrist, fingers, and thumb. This occurs because the radial nerve innervates the extensor muscles of the forearm; when it’s impaired, those extensors can’t work, and the hand tends to rest in flexion. Numbness on the medial forearm points to other nerves (such as branches from the medial cord) rather than the radial nerve, so that sensory pattern isn’t typical for radial injury. Weakness in finger flexors would involve the median or ulnar nerves, which control flexion. Pain with resisted wrist flexion similarly targets the flexor muscles supplied by the median/ulnar nerves, not the radial nerve. So the best-described symptom for a radial nerve injury is the wrist drop with loss of extension of the wrist, fingers, and thumb.

Radial nerve injuries disrupt the muscles that extend the wrist and fingers, so the hallmark is a wrist drop with the inability to actively extend the wrist, fingers, and thumb. This occurs because the radial nerve innervates the extensor muscles of the forearm; when it’s impaired, those extensors can’t work, and the hand tends to rest in flexion.

Numbness on the medial forearm points to other nerves (such as branches from the medial cord) rather than the radial nerve, so that sensory pattern isn’t typical for radial injury. Weakness in finger flexors would involve the median or ulnar nerves, which control flexion. Pain with resisted wrist flexion similarly targets the flexor muscles supplied by the median/ulnar nerves, not the radial nerve.

So the best-described symptom for a radial nerve injury is the wrist drop with loss of extension of the wrist, fingers, and thumb.

More practice questions