Pain in the hand

Pain in the hand can be caused by various reasons, because it can manifest itself in different forms. It can hurt like the whole hand, and a certain part of it. Pain can appear spontaneously or gradually develop, be sharp or blunt, burning or numbing, shooting or piercing, permanent or paroxysmal.

[1], [2],

What causes pain in the arm?

Pain in the hand is often the result of such injuries as stretching or rupture of ligaments, broken bones, bruises or other types of damage. In addition, the reason may be the overstrain of the muscle fibers, which arises from excessive exercise, prolonged work in an uncomfortable position. In this case, the injured hand needs to provide the greatest possible peace. In certain situations, pain in the hand is one of the signs of ailments of nerve trunks, the musculoskeletal system, and the cardiovascular system. In this regard, if discomfort in the hand does not pass over a long period of time or periodically resumes for no apparent reason, you should immediately seek medical advice.

If there is a suspicion of a dislocation or fracture, an X-ray examination should be done, if there are no visible external injuries, the cervical spine should be checked , because the cause of the pain may be protrusion or a herniated disc. If the pain in the hand appears and disappears in a calm state without any external cause, the variant of the development of inflammation or arthritis is not ruled out. It should not be forgotten that bone fracture is not always obvious. In many cases, it appears as a result of a stroke and can go unnoticed, manifested only in the process of serious physical exertion, since discomfort is perceived as a sign of an ordinary bruise.

It should be noted that pain in the hand is not always felt directly at the injury site, for example, if the wrist is injured, it often extends to the entire forearm. Usually this happens under the condition of constant high load on the joint, which is determined by the nuances of professional activity. However, the hand does not have enough time to recover, and this leads to increased pain. Despite the fact that the muscles on the top of the hand in a lot of people are developed quite well, their injury can also be a cause of significant discomfort. One should also include the inflammatory process in the tendon of the biceps muscle, and in addition its friction against the bone or rupture.

Sometimes the pain in the upper arm arises from the lifting of heavy objects, which can cause inflammation in the tendons of the shoulder muscles. It is accompanied by tingling and burning, which often disturb a person at night. In addition, discomfort can create a buildup of fluid in the tissues. After sleep, a person shakes his hand, which improves microcirculation and gives relief. But the swelling in the hands can appear and against the background, for example, of pregnancy, because it is possible to detect pathology only with the help of special diagnostic studies.

Often a person can face pain, which gives in one of the hands. If this is the left arm, then we are dealing with the classic symptoms of a heart attack or myocardial infarction. In this case, the pain in the arm and behind the sternum, as usual, is accompanied by shortness of breath, pallor, nausea, cold sweat, an inexplicable sense of fear. In such a situation, you need to call emergency medical care. 

Diseases in which there is pain in the hand

[3], [4], [5], [6]

Shoulder plexitis

The defeat of the brachial plexus, as a rule, is caused by mechanical causes: trauma, dislocation of the head of the humerus, narrowing of the cotoclavicular space due to a fracture of the clavicle. A rare variant of shoulder plexopathy is Pancost syndrome, which is expressed in a tumor of the top of the lung that grows into the brachial plexus. In such cases, pain in the hand accompanies the development of Horner's syndrome (enophthalmos, miosis, ptosis ) due to the defeat of sympathetic fibers. Confirm the diagnosis can radiographic signs of swelling of the top of the lung and destruction of the upper ribs.

Neuralgic amyotrophy

This ailment manifests itself in an unusually severe pain in the arm and in the shoulder girdle, which is combined with a pronounced atrophy of the muscles of the proximal part of the arm, often with a paralysis of the anterior dentate muscle, which causes the muzzle edge of the scapula to move, causing it to almost perpendicular to thorax. Subacute variant of development of these atrophies distinguishes this kind of plexopathies from radiculopathies and other lesions of the brachial plexus.

Shoulder-scrotal periarthrosis

This disease, as a rule, is one of the neurodystrophic syndromes of such a disease as cervical osteochondrosis, or an independent disease or a consequence of trauma. There is pain in the hand of varying degrees of intensity, which resembles radiculopathy or plexalgia. Its peculiarity is that the arm in the sagittal plane moves freely, but the sideways arm is limited due to the contracture of the muscles, it is accompanied by intense pain - the "frozen hand" syndrome appears.

Shoulder-Brush Syndrome

It is characterized by a combination of symptoms that are inherent in the brachial parietartrosis, with swelling and other vegetative changes in the area of the wrist and hand. The disease has a long flow pattern.

Carpal tunnel syndrome

It appears due to compression of the median nerve located in the osteophyseal canal, with diseases such as arthritis of the wrist joints, tendonitis of the flexor of the fingers, often against the background of changes in the endocrine system - menopause, pregnancy, diabetes mellitus and others. Paresthesias and pain sensations in I-III or in all fingers of the hand are noted. The pain in the arm increases during palpation of the transverse ligament, with passive extension and flexion of the wrist joint, when the cuff of the tonometer is applied to the shoulder, when the arms are raised in the reclining position.

[7], [8], [9]

Syndrome of anterior staircase

For him, a characteristic symptom is pain in the hand, which is amplified at night, during a deep inspiration, tilting the head to the healthy side, taking the hand away. Note the weakness of the muscles of the hand. The brush has a pale color, it is characterized by cyanotic, puffiness.

Pain in the hand, which causes prolonged work at the computer, was called "tunnel syndrome." This is the professional ailment of most computer scientists and a common disease of everyone who is at the computer very much time. As a rule, the cause of the appearance of pain lies in the pinching of the carpal tunnel nerve (this is caused by the constant static load on the same muscles, as well as the awkward positioning of the hands when working with the mouse or keyboard) or the lack of interarticulate fluid. It is better to warn this trouble beforehand than to treat it. There are special mouse mats equipped with rubber rollers for the hand. They help to comfortably arrange a hand and remove the load from it. If the pain in the hand has already arisen, and it is quite strong, you need to pull the wrist elastic bandage, but do not overdo it - the violation of blood circulation will only exacerbate the situation. The broths of nettle and rosemary are good for joint pain. In addition, one can make appliqués of them: brew the grass, apply another warm gruel from it to your hand, wrap it with polyethylene, and on top - with something warm, for example, a scarf or a handkerchief. However, if the pain in the hand lasts more than a week, you need to visit a neurologist.

Who should I contact if you have pain in my arm?

The reason for calling a doctor should be pain in the hand, which lasts more than 2 days, increases with physical exertion or arises against the background of limited nerve sensitivity. An alarm signal is a change in the shape of the hand, the appearance of swelling and joint stiffness . A traumatologist and neurologist will help diagnose, establish the cause and prescribe the correct treatment with pain in the arm.