Recognizing carpal dislocations is important because of the potential complications, including median nerve compression in the carpal tunnel. Distinguishing perilunate dislocations from lunate dislocations can be tricky, but key points are:

• in perilunate dislocations, the radiolunate articulation is maintained and the distal carpal row is dorsally displaced compared to the radius
• in lunate dislocations, there is disruption of both lunocapitate and radiolunate articulations, with normal alignment of the distal carpal row with the radius