We often take our hands for granted until one is injured. Our hands are like fine tools – they allow us to do so many things, especially thanks to our thumbs.
Any hand injury or hand/wrist pain has the potential to greatly affect a person’s quality of life. Below, we’ll explore some of the more common hand conditions.
Frequently Diagnosed Hand Issues
Some of the most common hand conditions are minor, but others are progressive in nature and can cause serious deformity to the hands – as well as interfere with normal functioning:
Boutonnière Deformity
This issue causes a finger to be bent inward, toward the palm, while the upper portion of that finger remains unnaturally extended in the opposite direction. This results in mild deformity and the inability to flatten the hand or straighten out the fingers normally.
De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis
This condition is a repetitive-use injury that causes pain and swelling on your wrist near the thumb. It is frequently found in new mothers who use their wrists to pick up their new baby, people who frequently type text messages (without adequate breaks), golfers, tennis players, and gardeners.
It worsens with use or movement of the wrist and thumb. It is diagnosed when doctors find tenderness or swelling over the two tendons on the thumb side of the wrist.
Dupuytren’s Contracture
Usually an age-related hand condition, Dupuytren’s is a gradually occurring closing of the pinky and/or ring fingers toward the palm. It occurs due to the tendons shortening and tightening into a ball or knot.
The typical symptoms are tight nodules that form on the palm of the hand, causing the fingers to curl into a claw shape. There are a few different treatment options for Duputren’s, but all should be under the consultation of a trained hand surgeon.
Felon
Felon is when a pocket of pus fills inside the fingertip, creating pressure and cutting off circulation to nearby tissues. This condition is an infection, and it can lead to possible necrosis of adjacent tissues.
This requires professional medical treatment, not at-home treatment. The physician will numb the area, drain the infection, and prescribe antibiotics in order to prevent the infection from spreading in the body.
Ganglion Cyst
A ganglion cyst usually appears on the back of the wrist, although it can also pop up on the front as well. If it is unsightly or causing problems or pain, a doctor can drain the cyst.
This cyst can spontaneously appear in people especially between the ages of 20 and 50. It affects women three times as often as men.
Radial Tunnel Syndrome
This disorder causes numbness, tingling, and sometimes pain in the hand due to compression of the radial nerve. The narrow area through which the nerves of the hand must pass is a sheath of muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
Because it is narrow, the nerve can become compressed. This can make the hand feel a piercing, stabbing pain on the top of the forearm and the backside of the hand. It can also cause weakness in the affected hand.
Hand Surgeons in Maryland
All of these hand conditions can make life difficult when the hand doesn’t behave the way it is supposed to. These issues can make it difficult or painful to grip or type.
If you suffer from one or more of these, or if you have pain or problems in your hand or arm, contact the professionals at Greater Chesapeake Hand to Shoulder by calling us today at (410) 296-6232 or request an appointment online now. Let us help you get your hand back to feeling and functioning normally again.
