Six Common Causes of Hand Pain and How to Get Relief

Your hands are complicated systems that you depend heavily upon to complete daily tasks. For both of these reasons, it may be no surprise that hand pain can happen in various ways. In addition, hand pain can result from several different physical conditions and injuries affecting the hand, such as sprains or fractures. Winter is one of the worst times for hand injuries. Snow, frost, and other slippery conditions regularly lead to falls and slips, and landing on your outstretched hand is a widespread cause of hand injuries. In this blog, our orthopedic surgeon in Deltona will demonstrate some of the most common hand pain causes and how you can find relief.

Most Common Causes of Hand Pain

From your fingertips and base of your palms to your wrists and into your arms, there are many places where something can go wrong and provoke pain. Some of the standard hand pain causes include the following:

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS)

Your carpal tunnel is a narrow opening through your carpal bones—the bones that make up your wrist and the base of your hand. It provides a path for the tendons that control your fingers and the median nerve, which supplies feeling and function to your thumb, index, and middle fingers. With carpal tunnel syndrome, the opening becomes restricted, and your median nerve is compressed, provoking numbness, tingling, and discomfort in your hand.

Finger and hand fractures

Fractures can have many causes, with one typical reason being a fall onto your outstretched arm. Fractures might be obvious—you could have swelling and discomfort at the location of the injury, or your bone may be visibly deformed. In other circumstances, like a scaphoid fracture, you might not know that a fracture has happened. A scaphoid fracture generates pain and swelling at the base of your thumb and is often mistaken for a sprain.

Trigger finger

Your fingers work like a cluster of ropes and pulleys. Tendons (the ropes) glide through a succession of tendon sheaths (the pulleys) at your joints. With trigger finger, your tendon forms a nodule or thickened area, which prevents it from sliding easily through your tendon sheath. As a result, your finger "locks" at a particular point when you try to straighten it.

Arthritis of the hand

All your joints are susceptible to arthritis, including the joints in your hands. With osteoarthritis, the smooth cartilage protecting the ends of the joint's bones erodes, ultimately leaving bone grinding on bone and generating pain. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder affecting your joints and commonly strikes your hands. It induces pain and inflammation of your joints.

Ganglion Cysts

These small, fluid-filled bumps form on the underside of the wrists or hands. They most frequently appear along your tendons or at your joints, and though they're benign, if they're big or in the wrong position, they may place pressure on a nerve and generate hand pain.

Sprained Ligaments

Ligaments are dense, rigid connective tissues that join two bones together to assemble a joint. Your hand and wrist include many ligaments, and any of them can become injured. A sprain is what an injury to your ligament is called.

Finding treatment for common hand pain causes

Our orthopedic surgeon in Deltona is dedicated to treating hand injuries and ailments, both sports and non-sports-related. We offer a complete range of therapies for hand pain and stress using nonsurgical approaches whenever feasible. However, our patients can access the latest, state-of-the-art techniques when surgery is required.