Hand/Wrist Specialists

Hand/Wrist Specialists

From the instant you wake up to the moment you go to sleep, your hands and wrists are in motion. The 27 bones in your hand and the 13 bones in your wrist work together to grasp door handles, pick up items, cook, work and perform daily care actions. When the flick of the wrist or a handshake causes pain, it’s time to call the Bone & Joint Center’s hand and wrist experts to request an appointment. We can diagnose and prescribe treatment to reduce the pain and weakness. Restore the movement of your hands, wrists, and fingers.

See an orthopedic specialist if you:

  • Feel numbness in your hands
  • Experience a tingling sensation
  • Feel pain in your hands or wrists
  • Cannot move your hands, wrists, or fingers
  • Feel cramping in your hands or fingers

Hand/Wrist Conditions

Click to expand for more information.

Arthritis is the swelling and tenderness of one or more of your joints. The main symptoms of arthritis are joint pain and stiffness, which typically worsen with age. The most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Common Causes:

The most common type of arthritis, osteoarthritis involves wear-and-tear damage to your joint’s cartilage — the hard, slick coating on the ends of bones where they form a joint. In rheumatoid arthritis, the body’s immune system attacks the lining of the joint capsule, a tough membrane that encloses all the joint parts. The disease process can eventually destroy cartilage and bone within the joint.

This condition is a fracture, or break, of one or more of the metacarpal bones of the hand. The fracture may be nondisplaced, in which the bones remain aligned, or displaced, in which the fractured ends shift out of alignment. Without proper treatment, the bones may not heal correctly. This can result in improper alignment of the fingers, leading to poor hand function.

Common Causes:

This type of injury is most often caused by direct trauma to the hand, such as punching another object, a sharp blow to the hand, a fall, or a twisting or crushing injury that can all cause a metacarpal hand fracture. If the break occurs at the end of the bone nearest the knuckle, this is called a boxer’s fracture.

Cubital tunnel syndrome happens when the ulnar nerve, which passes through the cubital tunnel (a tunnel of muscle, ligament, and bone) on the inside of the elbow, is injured and becomes inflamed, swollen, and irritated.

Common Causes:

Cubital tunnel syndrome may happen when a person bends the elbows often (when pulling, reaching, or lifting), leans on their elbow a lot, or has an injury to the area.

Skier’s thumb describes an injury of the soft tissue that connects the bones of your thumb together. In medical terms, this soft tissue is called a ligament. Skier’s thumb accounts for a significant number of skiing injuries.

Common Causes:

A fall on an outstretched hand creates the force necessary to stress the thumb and stretch or tear the ligament. Your thumb can also be injured if it is jammed into a surface at a high velocity. One cause of this injury is an automobile crash when the driver has the thumb alone draped over the steering wheel. Any injury in which the thumb is abnormally bent backward or to the side can cause skier’s thumb.

Trigger finger, also known as stenosing tenosynovitis, is a condition in which one of your fingers gets stuck in a bent position. It occurs when inflammation narrows the space within the sheath that surrounds the tendon in the affected finger. If your condition is severe, your finger may become locked in a bent position.

Common Causes:

Tendons are fibrous cords that attach muscle to bone. Each tendon is surrounded by a protective sheath. Trigger finger occurs when the affected finger’s tendon sheath becomes irritated and inflamed. This interferes with the normal gliding motion of the tendon through the sheath.

A tendon injury may seem to happen suddenly, but usually, it is the result of many tiny tears to the tendon that have happened over time. Doctors may use different terms to describe a tendon injury such as tendinitis.

Common Causes:

Most tendon injuries are the result of gradual wear and tear to the tendon from overuse or aging. People who make the same motions over and over in their jobs, sports, or daily activities are more likely to damage a tendon.

Pain, numbness, and tingling in your hand may be from carpal tunnel syndrome. It happens when the area around the main nerve to your hand is too tight. The nerve is called the median nerve. And the small space in your wrist where it passes is called the carpal tunnel.

Common Causes:

Carpal tunnel syndrome is more common in women, as pregnancy and conditions that cause your body to hold onto fluid can act as contributors. Wrist injuries, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis are causes, along with any crowding of the median nerve. Some think it’s caused by repeated motions of the hand and fingers, especially a lot of typing at the computer. However, the evidence for that link is not clear.

A sprain injures the bands of tissue that connect two bones together.

Common Causes:

When sprains occur in the wrist, it is often a result of landing on an outstretched hand during a fall. Thumb sprains are primarily caused by sports-related injury and overextension of the thumb.

Hand/Wrist Services

Fracture Surgery
Tendon Repair
Stabilization Surgery

Physical and Rehabilitative Therapy
Minimally Invasive Surgery
Wrist Arthroscopy

Providers

Pamela E. Glennon, MD

Orthopedic Hand & Wrist Surgeon

Dominic Leonardelli, MD

Orthopedic Hand & Wrist Surgeon

Related Content

What are bone spurs?

You’re reading your X-ray results, and you see,” Enthesophyte seen at the plantar fascia region.” Of course, you immediately boot up your computer [...]

Are you losing your grip?

Most of us do as we get older. That jar lid that was easy to twist off in your 20s and 30s may [...]

Copyright 2012 - 2023 Bone & Joint
Toggle Sliding Bar Area

CONTACT

800.445.6442

Email: info@bonejoint.net

Go to Top