Hand pains are a common ailment that can have a variety of causes - it can occur after overstrain, after an injury or due to a systemic disease. The root of the problem may be in the hand if there is an injury or strain, or it could also be the result of an inflammatory disease affecting the entire body. What are the causes of hand pain?

Contents:

  1. Hand pain - degenerative changes
  2. Hand pain - inflammatory diseases
  3. Hand pain - microtraumas
  4. Hand pain - ganglion
  5. Pain in the hands - de Quervain's syndrome
  6. Hand pain - Raynaud's phenomenon
  7. Hand pain treatment

Hand paincan be especially bothersome. Hands, especially hands, are extremely important to us, because thanks to them we get to know the world, we can perform various activities and participate in social life. At the same time, the multitasking of our hands makes them particularly vulnerable to injuries and overload.

Pain is not the only worrying hand symptoms reported by patients. In addition to pain, they often suffer from joint stiffness, numbness and tingling, skin hypersensitivity or burning sensation. Each of these symptoms should lead us to see a doctor, because they can be caused by serious conditions that require treatment.

Hand pain - degenerative changes

Osteoarthritis is one of the leading causes of hand pain. The degenerative changes can affect any joint, but in the area of ​​the hand, the metacarpal trapezius joint I, at the base of the thumb, is most often involved. The first symptoms resulting from degenerative changes may appear around 40 this year.

A symptom of degenerative changes may be pain in the area of ​​the affected joint, which makes it difficult to perform daily activities. The patient feels a weakness of the grip, he is unable to hold heavier objects or make precise movements.

There is also stiffness of the joint, a clear limitation of mobility. Often, Patients experience a reduction in stiffness after "moving" the joint, especially in the morning.

The discomforts intensify when you move, and they decrease when you rest. It happens, however, that the pain remains constant, also at night.

The doctor should assess the advancement of the changes and select the appropriate treatment. Depending on how big they aredegenerative changes, physiotherapy, orthoses, drugs administered locally by injection or orally, and in the most advanced cases even surgical treatment are used.

Hand pain - inflammatory diseases

Inflammatory joint diseases that are manifested by hand pain include rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or psoriatic arthritis (PsA). These are diseases included in a large group of autoimmune diseases, i.e. those in which the immune system attacks its own tissues.

In the current state of knowledge, these diseases are incurable, we can only modify - i.e. alleviate - their course through appropriate treatment (drug therapies).

Depending on the disease, various joints are affected by ailments, with varying severity - not only (and not always) there is a wrist or small joints of the hands. Unlike a degenerative disease, the symptoms may be temporary - their intensity may change over time, e.g. after a period of severe exacerbation of symptoms, they may be reduced for several weeks or months.

Apart from the pain, Patients feel that their joints are swollen and observe that hard lumps that deform their hands are forming in them. A characteristic symptom is the morning stiffness of the joints, which lasts much longer than in the case of osteoarthritis, it is difficult to "start" it.

Other symptoms of inflammatory arthritis include weakness, a feeling of breakdown and low-grade fever. A patient with a diagnosed autoimmune disease should remain under the constant care of a rheumatology clinic and, if necessary, be periodically consulted orthopedically.

Hand pain - carpal tunnel syndrome

A common condition that causes pain in the hand - primarily in the thumb, index and middle fingers - is pressure on the median nerve in the carpal tunnel. For various reasons - workload, diabetes, rheumatological diseases - the space at the level of the wrist is narrowed, which means that the nerve there is not properly nourished.

Pain in this disease occurs most often at night, it is accompanied by numbness, tingling, with time there is a decreased feeling, weakened grip. Patients report that they are unable to hold small items and that they lack precision of movements. It is rare to cure this disease non-invasively - surgical decompression of the nerve is most often required.

Read more: Carpal tunnel syndrome: symptoms, treatment and rehabilitation

Pain in the hands - de Quervain's syndrome

Pain in the wrist on the side of the thumb that makes it difficult to move your thumb may be a symptom of deQuervain. It is a situation in which the sheath becomes narrow for the two main tendons governing the movements of the thumb, which makes their movement very painful and makes it difficult for the patient to function. The causes of this condition are also not fully understood, but the role of overload and / or rheumatological diseases in the occurrence of this disease is clear.

Treatment depends mainly on the duration of the symptoms. Anti-inflammatory drugs - either by mouth or topically by injection - can help in a short time. However, when symptoms persist for a long time, these methods fail and surgical cutting of the narrowed sheath may be necessary.

Hand pain - ganglion

In the wrist area, circular, point-like thickenings - ganglions - appear relatively often. These are spaces filled with a jelly-like substance. The cause of their formation is not fully understood, but it seems that long-term overload of the wrist is of great importance.

Ganglion itself, if it does not compress blood vessels or nerves, is not a threatening lesion, it is not a cancer. However, it can cause discomfort, pain and look unsightly.

The vast majority of such changes disappear on their own over time. However, if the Patient is disturbed by such a change or if symptoms such as decreased sensation are added, the doctor may decide to remove the change.

Any lump in the wrist area should be consulted by an orthopedist to rule out whether the lesion is really a ganglion or some other tumor. It should be verified if it is not a neoplastic change.

Hand pain - Raynaud's disease

This is paroxysmal contraction of arteries mainly affecting the fingers. Most often, it occurs as a result of low temperature, emotional stress, or for no apparent reason.

The disease develops in attacks where the fingers turn white to a waxy white and there is a sharp, unpleasant pain.

A patient who notices such symptoms should go to a dermatological consultation.

Hand pain - degenerative changes in the spine

It may happen that the pain in the hand may not be related to any structure within it. In the case of discopathy - degenerative changes in the discs between the vertebrae - in the cervical spine, nerve roots may be pinched, which conduct impulses to the hand. The patient may experience pain, weakness in the arm, sensory disturbances or numbness due to nerve dysfunction caused by the cervical spine.

Doctor consulting the Patient due to pain in the hand after excluding their cause within the hand orforearm, he should look for the problem on a "higher" level.

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According to an expertbow. Karolina Stępień, specialist in orthopedics and traumatology of the musculoskeletal system at the Carolina Medical Center

The causes of hand pain are very different and come from different sources. Therefore, the management of each of these disease entities is different. In the case of pain in the hands or other disturbing symptoms related to them, a medical consultation is necessary - preferably an orthopedic one. During such a visit, the doctor will collect the patient's history and examine the hand, possibly recommend additional tests, such as X-ray, ultrasound, etc.

It is very important not to underestimate these ailments and strive for a complete diagnosis of the problem.

We can consider some of the diseases as harmless (e.g. ganglion, slight degenerative changes) and may not require any special treatment. On the other hand, the lack of diagnosis and treatment in other diseases (e.g. carpal tunnel, neoplastic tumors) may lead to permanent impairment of its function. At the same time, as in any disease, diagnosing the problem at an early stage allows for better and more effective treatment than in the case of advanced changes.

Category:

Anatomy