Hamate at a glance
- What it is
- A wedge-shaped carpal bone of the distal row with a hook.
- Location
- Lies on the ulnar side of the distal row, articulating with the capitate, triquetrum and lunate, and with the fourth and fifth metacarpals.
- Function
- Its hook anchors the flexor retinaculum and gives origin to hypothenar muscles.
- Body system
- Skeletal · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA24449 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Its hook (hamulus) projects from the palmar surface. It forms the lateral wall of Guyon's canal and the medial wall of the carpal tunnel.
Clinical relevance
Fractures of the hook can injure the ulnar nerve or flexor tendons.
Structures next to the hamate
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Dorsal carpal branch of ulnar artery · cardiovascular
- Triquetral · skeletal
- Superficial palmar arterial arch · cardiovascular
- Capitate · skeletal
- Lunate · skeletal
- Pisiform · skeletal
- Deep palmar arch · cardiovascular
- Scaphoid · skeletal
- Trapezoid · skeletal
- Dorsal carpal branch of radial artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Hamate (FMA24449). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §7.1 Divisions of the Skeletal System. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.