What’s a bifurcated navicular bone?

The navicular bone of the hand is in the proximal row and radial side of the eight carpal bones of the wrist joint, and its morphology resembles a twisted peanut, which is called the navicular bone because it looks like a small boat from the orthopedic image. The bifurcated navicular bone is a kind of abnormal development of the navicular bone. Two ossification centers appear in the process of development of the navicular bone, and the two are ossified separately, and eventually the secondary ossification center can not be fused with the main ossification center, and the bifurcated navicular bone occurs. The connection between the primary bone and the secondary bone is a fibrous connection or fibrocartilaginous connection, and some experts believe that it is a hyaline cartilaginous connection. Bifurcated navicular bone is clinically rare and easy to be confused with navicular bone fracture, the main points of differentiation between the two are, bifurcated navicular bone is generally no pressure pain, percussion pain, and there is no obvious swelling of the surrounding soft tissues. Fractures of the navicular bone are mostly caused by trauma, and can be seen in the radial side of the wrist, tenderness, percussion pain, and swelling of the snuff fossa. In addition, pushing and squeezing the first and second metacarpals can induce pain.