Wrist drop physical examination

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor-In-Chief: Cafer Zorkun, M.D., Ph.D. [2]

Physical Examination

An exam of the arm, hand, and wrist may find:

Decreased ability to extend the arm at the elbow
Decreased ability to rotate the arm outward (supination)
Difficulty lifting the wrist or fingers (extensor muscle weakness)
Muscle loss (atrophy) in the forearm
Weakness of the wrist and finger
To demonstrate wrist drop, hold your arm out in front of you with your forearm parallel to the floor. With the back of your hand facing the ceiling (i.e. pronated), let your hand hang limply so that your fingers point downward. A person with wrist drop would be unable to move from this position to one in which the fingers are pointing up towards the ceiling.