Pain in the joints of the hands

The hand is the most mobile part of the body. It has a significant range of motion. With the help of hands, we perform the finest work, write, create real works of art. It is for this reason that it is very important to protect the joints of the hands and take care of their health.

The largest joints of the hand:

• carpal joints
• joints of fingers
• wrist joint
• elbow joint
• the shoulder joint.

[1], [2], [3], [4], [5]

Diseases in which there is pain in the joints of the hands

Pain in the joints of the hands appears if there are any joint diseases. Most often you have to deal with rheumatoid arthritis, gout, osteoarthritis, arthritis of the corresponding joint, trauma or stretching of the muscles and ligaments surrounding the joint. Of course, there are others, but they are much less common.

[6], [7], [8]

Rheumatoid arthritis

In the case of rheumatoid arthritis, the diagnosis can be made only by the appropriate specialist, based on X-ray images, the nature of the changes in the analyzes and the symptoms of these ailments, which are quite characteristic. For a disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, for example, symmetry is characteristic of joint damage (the same joints are affected by two arms), signs of inflammation (reddening of the skin, swelling, limited mobility in them).

Rheumatoid arthritis can be diagnosed as in very young children, and in people of mature age. Often, the joints of the hands suffer. By the way, almost always this disease occurs in those over 50, although sometimes there are inherited forms of osteoarthritis, in which the ailment can manifest itself in adolescence and even at a younger age. Osteoarthritis is characterized by pain in the joints of the hands after some physical labor, towards evening, whereas in rheumatoid arthritis, the pain syndrome, on the contrary, weakens slightly after physical activity.

With rheumatoid arthritis, such joints of the hands as the wrist and phalanges of the fingers usually suffer. Pain in the joints of the hands, as a rule, has an average degree of strength, redness and swelling of the joints are noted, while symmetry is observed on both sides. Suffered pain syndrome is not less than 2 groups of joints. After a dream, there may be some stiffness that does not go away for several hours. Painful attacks can occur both periodically and be permanent.

How to treat. One should immediately consult a rheumatologist. Rheumatoid arthritis, although not amenable to complete cure, however, degenerative changes in the joints you still can be inhibited by taking medications for anti-inflammatory use or surgical intervention by conducting a synovectomy.

[9], [10], [11],

Gout

Gout ("meat-eating disease") appears due to the fact that the crystals of matter are deposited in the joints, which is formed during the exchange of purines (substances that are particularly large in meat products and meat proper). If there is a violation of this exchange, the development of gout begins. Suffer from gout is mainly representatives of the stronger sex of mature age. Pain, as a rule, is acute, sometimes it becomes simply unbearable. The attack begins unexpectedly. The joint swells, the skin near it acquires a purple-red color.

For gout suffer mainly wrist joints and elbow joints. Pain in the joints of the hands has an extremely high degree of intensity and has a burning, pressing, pulsating or vomiting character. The painful syndrome reaches a maximum at night, the pain ceases only in the morning. The attack can cause the use of alcoholic beverages, excessive consumption of meat and too fatty food, a bath or sauna. The exacerbation can occur approximately 2 to 6 times a year and last for 3-4 days.

How to treat. In order to block the attack of gout, you need to take analgesics (they can recommend only a doctor). After that, you should follow the diet as strictly as possible, which restricts the consumption of meat, fish, too fatty foods and spirits, on the recommendation of the doctor from time to time to undergo treatment with medications that lower the level of purines in the blood.

[12], [13], [14], [15]

Osteoarthritis of the joints of the hands

This disease affects the ulnar and humeral joints, the metacarpal joint of the thumb, as well as the small joints of the hand. Pain in the joints of the hands is usually disturbed during the day, becomes more intense in all movements, physical activity, if you spend a lot of time in a vertical position. Significantly weakens in the morning and after rest. Sometimes you can hear crunching and clicking on the joints. Painful sensations can bother for a long time (for several weeks and even months), and a brief period - up to 1 day.

How to treat. Drug treatment is very rarely prescribed. In most cases, massage sessions, physiotherapy, swimming, mud treatment are effective.

Arthritis of the joints of the hands

With this disease, as a rule, there are constant painful sensations with the slightest movement and limited mobility of the joint of the hand, a feeling of stiffness after the night, a swelling and redness of the skin area over the affected joint, probably an increase in body temperature. Arthritis is an inflammatory process in the joint. It can manifest itself in acute form, in this case there are pains of strong intensity and swelling, and can manifest itself in chronic form - in this case the ailment passes slowly, sometimes reminding itself of the pain syndrome. The second form is more dangerous because the symptoms are implicit, since a prolonged inflammatory process is capable of causing deformation of the joint and subsequently its complete destruction. Often arthritis appears as a result of an infection that gets directly into the joint or from other organs along with the bloodstream.

[16], [17], [18], [19]

Rheumatism

This disease manifests itself after an acute infection of the upper respiratory tract. The onset of a typical form of rheumatism is expressed in fever and pain in the joints of the hands. The affected are, as a rule, large joints: wrist, ulnar. The pains are volatile, they can migrate from one joint to another. Around the affected joint with rheumatism appears redness and swelling, but irreversible changes do not occur. With a prolonged course of the disease around the patient's joint, rheumatic nodules may appear. They look like dense, with the size of a lentil, of education. They appear, as a rule, in those places that are subjected to pressure: the fold of the elbow, wrist, forearm. On the skin of a child suffering from rheumatism, there may be a specific rash: patches of a pale reddish shade of curved or annular shape, and also in the form of narrow strips. As the disease develops, serious heart damage can begin.