Kienböck's disease, which is characterized by osteonecrosis of the lunate bone, causes progressive chronic pain and dysfunction of the hand and wrist. Even though occurrence of the disease was reported approximately 100 years ago and it is suspected to be work-related to some degree, the etiology has not been clearly discribed and the disease has rarely been considered as an occupation-related disease. As such, we submit this case as the first report of Kienböck's disease in Korea, with clinical findings, x-ray, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and strain index results along with a literature review.

The patient was carefully interviewed and her medical records were properly reviewed by the authors with her consent. The authors also visited her factory work site to inspect and videotape the working environment and to conduct an ergonomic evaluation with a strain index.

Excessively repeated contact stress was found to be concentrated on her right hand and the environment was discovered to be hazardous from an ergonomic standpoint. The literature review revealed that heavy loads on the hand might be related to the cause or deterioration associated with Kienböck's disease. ; therefore, it is very likely that her disease is related to her work.

There is much evidence to suggest that heavy workloads involving hand and wrist intensive tasks may cause and worsen Kienböck's disease. However, to date epidemiologic studies clarifying the etiology of the disease have not been sufficiently reported. Therefore, further research focusing on the etiology and prevention of the disease are required. In addition, practical guidelines for hand and wrist intensive tasks are needed to prevent disease development and worsening.