Archive Of Standardized Exam Questions: Radial Nerve Injury

OVERVIEW

This page is dedicated to organizing various examples of standardized exam questions whose answer is a radial nerve injury. While this may seem a odd practice, it is useful to see multiple examples of how radial nerve injury will be characterized on standardized exams (namely the boards and the shelf exams). This page is not meant to be used as a tradition question bank (as all of the answers will be the same), however seeing the classic “test” characterization for a disease is quite valuable.

QUESTION EXAMPLES

Question # 1

A 14 year old boy falls off of a ladder and fractures the shaft of his left humorous. He is unable to extend his left wrist or fingers. What nerve is most likely damaged by the patient?

Question # 2

A 60 year old woman comes to the emergency room because she was very recently in a traffic collision. Her neck was immobilized in a cervical collar at the scene of the accident. When she arrives she explains that she has neck pain and pain in her left forearm. The patinet’s pulse is 85/min, respiration’s are 17/min, and blood pressure is 145/70 mm Hg. A physical exam is notable for swelling and crepitus in the left upper extremity. The patient is able to extend the proximal and distal interphalagneal joints on her left hand, but is unable to extend the MCP joints of her left hand or wrist. The rest of the physical exam is noncontributory. An X-ray of the left arm shows a fracture at the mid shaft of the humerus. What is the likely diagnosis in this patient?

 

Page Updated: 11.18.2016