Mosby Radiography Practice Test

Radial deviation is the wrist’s movement toward the radius, meaning toward the thumb side of the forearm. This is a side-to-side (lateral) shift, not a bend. Flexion refers to bending the wrist toward the palm, while dorsiflexion is bending it toward the back of the hand—neither describes a sideward shift. Ulnar flexion isn’t a standard way to describe wrist motion and would imply bending toward the ulna, the opposite direction of radial deviation. So the important idea is that deviation terms describe direction along the radius–ulna axis, whereas flexion/extension describe bending.