Foreword

During the first 5 years since the initial issue of the Journal of Hand Surgery, slightly more than 50 articles and letters dealing with the wrist were published in this journal alone—an average of close to 10 a year. Joseph H. Boyes, in his 1985 foreword to my book, The Wrist, stated: “…to surgeons dealing with impaired function of the hand, the key joint in controlling digital motion has always been the wrist.” Confirming Dr. Boyes' vision, from 2008 through 2010, 275 articles on the wrist were published in the Journal of Hand Surgery, an average of more than 90 a year.

In 2010, there were 105 articles and there were more than 110 articles to almost the end of the 2011. Considering this manifest interest of upper extremity surgeons on the wrist and the incredible advances in the diagnosis and treatment of all wrist conditions, from the most common to the most obscure, the need for a journal dedicated exclusively to wrist surgery should be obvious. This journal will provide a much needed forum for the exchange of ideas in this relatively young subspecialty of surgery of the wrist.