Anatomy study note · Upper limb
Intercarpal and carpometacarpal joints
The joints between the carpal bones (intercarpal and midcarpal), between the carpus and the metacarpals, and between the metacarpal bases. Apart from the thumb, they allow only small gliding movements.
Key points
- Intercarpal, finger CMC, intermetacarpal = plane joints, gliding only.
- Thumb CMC = saddle joint (trapezium–MC1), own cavity.
- Opposition = opponens pollicis at the thumb CMC.
- Midcarpal joint increases wrist flexion.
- Joint: from mesenchyme between bone ends.
- Synovial cavity forms in the middle layer.
- Synovial membrane: type A (phagocytic) + type B (secretory) cells.
- Joint surfaces: hyaline cartilage, no perichondrium.
The full note in the atlas also covers
Features · Action · Nerve supply · Histology · Development · Clinical notes
Sign in free to see it on the 3D model, read the full note and practise questions on it.
Written from
- Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 3, PDF pp. 421–424
- Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 10, PDF p. 144
- BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 7, PDF pp. 117–120, 131
More from the upper limb
- Interossei of the hand
- Latissimus dorsi
- Levator scapulae
- Long thoracic nerve
- Lumbricals of the hand
- Medial cutaneous nerves of arm and forearm
- Median cubital vein
- Median nerve
- Metacarpal bones
- Metacarpophalangeal and interphalangeal joints of the hand
- Musculocutaneous nerve
- Nerve to subclavius
Privacy policy · Designed by DATXOC LLC.