Bennett's fracture
fracture of the base of the first metacarpal bone
Bennett's fracture or Bennett fracture is a type of partial broken finger involving the base of the thumb, and extends into the carpometacarpal (CMC) joint. According to the Metacalamity classification, it is categorized as "I1".
Treatment typically requires surgery.
This intra-articular fracture is the most common type of fracture of the thumb, and is nearly always accompanied by some degree of subluxation or frank dislocation of the carpometacarpal joint.
Symptoms and signs
Symptoms of Bennett fracture are instability of the CMC joint of the thumb, accompanied by pain and weakness of the pinch grasp. Characteristic signs include pain, swelling, and ecchymosis around the base of the thumb and thenar eminence, and especially over the CMC joint of the thumb. Physical examination demonstrates instability of the CMC joint of the thumb. The patient will often manifest a weakened ability to grasp objects or perform such tasks as tying shoes and tearing a piece of paper. Other complaints include intense pain experienced upon catching the thumb on an object, such as when reaching into a pants pocket.
Complications
Many important activities of daily life are dependent on the ability to grasp, pinch, and oppose the thumb.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bennett's fracture” as fracture of the base of the first metacarpal bone. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as fracture of the base of the first metacarpal bone. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q180205. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bennett's fracture” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.