The floating first metacarpal: A rare case

Abstract

Afloating metacarpal is defined as the simultaneous dislocation of the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) and carpometacarpal (CMC) joints, indicating double dislocation of the same metacarpal. [1] It was first described by Moore et al. [2] in 1978 and later named the "floating thumb metacarpal" by Drosos et al. [3] Metacarpal dislocations are rare, and floating metacarpals with double dislocations are extremely rare. [4] In a recent study, there were nine case reports of floating metacarpal in the literature [5] The floating metacarpal is more often described as the thumb. [6] The treatment of these rare injuries can be quite diverse, including closed reduction and casting, percutaneous Kirschner wire (K-wire) fixation, and open repair of ligaments. [7,8] In this article, we present a very rare case of floating metacarpal in which the first MCP and CMC dislocations were found simultaneously and successfully treated with closed reduction, open reduction, and K-wire fixation methods.A floating metacarpal is defined as the simultaneous dislocation of the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) and carpometacarpal (CMC) joints. Metacarpal dislocations are rare, and floating metacarpals with double dislocations are extremely rare. In this article, we present a very rare case of floating metacarpal in which the first MCP and CMC dislocations were found simultaneously and successfully treated with closed reduction, open reduction, and Kirschner wire fixation methods.