Joint pains in the hand not only interfere with normal life, reduce physical activity, lead to reduced performance, but also worsen the emotional state due to constant painful discomfort.
Therefore, when someone has pain in the finger joints, the first thing that interests him is the causes of this phenomenon and a possible treatment.
Causes of pain
Arm pain can be caused by a variety of diseases, many of which have quite similar symptoms.Most diseases are chronic and the conditions for their development often go unnoticed.Let's find out why the joints in the fingers of one or both hands hurt.
Rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is a progressive disease of the connective tissue that affects the joints (mainly the peripheral ones). Due to the chronic inflammation of the synovial membrane, destruction of the cartilage occurs. Periarticular tissues are affected. The pathology develops as a result of the autoaggressiveness of the immune system.The clinical picture is characterized by:
- destruction of cartilage tissue;
- osteoporosis;
- pain, joint deformities (initially the hands), subluxations, contractions.
- deterioration of the condition of blood vessels, damage to the lymph nodes.
- changes in the skin, nails, increased pigmentation.
- the formation of specific rheumatoid nodules.
- heart disorders (rheumatoid carditis).
- dystrophic changes in muscles.
- various pathologies of the kidneys (usually amyloidosis), liver.
- functional disorders of the gastrointestinal tract.
- neurological disorders, rheumatoid neuropathy.
The disease can be caused by infections, hypothermia, trauma, physical or nervous stress.There is a genetic predisposition to the disease.Women get arthritis about 3 times more often.
The earliest and most important symptom is a feeling of morning stiffness throughout the body, especially in the joints of the hands, which disappears after physical activity. In the initial stage, there may be a temporary worsening of the general condition, when the joints of the fingers and feet periodically ache, the appetite decreases, the heart rate increases, sweating and a low temperature appears.
Later, the pains - mainly in the small joints of the hands and feet - intensify, especially in the morning, after sleeping and when you make movements.The period of morning stiffness lengthens, which becomes painful.Joint mobility is increasingly limited. Intense inflammatory swelling occurs, hyperemia, the temperature of the skin rises above the point of inflammation, fever begins.
Rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by alternating periods of exacerbations and remissions, sometimes long - for months or even years. With each flare-up, the process covers new joints.
Osteochondrosis
Osteochondrosis of the spine leads to lumbar spine, neck, neurovascular disorders, disc herniation, impaired blood flow in the vertebral arteries, pinched nerve roots and signs of other neurological symptoms. Most often, the disease is accompanied by a feeling of numbness in the fingers, but the pain can be mistaken for joint pain.
Osteochondropathy. Kienböck's disease
Pain in the fingers can be caused by osteochondropathy - necrosis of bone tissue caused by increased mechanical stress, mainly in childhood and adolescence. In adults, the disease is diagnosed less often.The development of pathology is caused by injuries, functional overload, infections, rapid growth in children, constitution characteristics and sometimes vitamin imbalance.
One such disease is Kienböck's disease, which affects the wrist joint. This type of osteochondropathy is mainly characteristic of men aged 18 to 30 years with chronic microtrauma or overuse of the hand (locksmiths, turners, carpenters, carpenters). The symptom complex includes:
- persistent pain that covers the fingers, wrist area.
- persistent swelling;
- increased pain when pressing on the wrist joint.
- bone destruction, subluxation of the mesocarpal joints in the final stage of the disease.
The procedure, as a rule, affects only one side.
Reactive arthritis
A recent infectious disease (1-1. 5 months ago) and the development of joint inflammation after it can explain why the fingers on the hands hurt, especially when they bend. Reactive arthritis is probably the result of an immune response to microbial antigens outside the joint, which causes immunocomplex arthritis to develop in the synovial membrane.
The symptomatology of the disease is expressed:
- pain in the affected joints, tendons.
- deterioration of the skin condition, changes in the nails.
- diseases of the urogenital, cardiovascular, lymphatic system.
The clinic of reactive arthritis is diverse and depends on the causative agent of the infection: streptococcus, salmonella, meningococcus, shigella and many others.
Arthritis
Gout belongs to the group of metabolic arthritis - diseases of the musculoskeletal system caused by metabolic disorders, in this case - uric acid. The disease mainly affects men over 40 years of age, but it is possible for gout to appear in young people of 20-30 years, in menopausal women.
Violation of purine metabolism can be caused by:
- increased synthesis due to a genetically inherited trait.
- renal failure;
- certain blood diseases;
- Drug intake?
- significant consumption of foods with a high content of purines and fat (meat, fish), alcohol.
- infections;
- a combination of various factors affecting uric acid metabolism.
The disease is accompanied by the development of hyperuricemia - an excess of uric acid in the blood serum, resulting in the deposition of uric salts in the tissues of the joints.
Gout is characterized by an attack-like course with the involvement of an increasing number of joints and tendons in the process, the gradual appearance of persistent visible deformities, stiffness, osteoarthritis and tophi formation (gout).
Symptomatic exacerbation of inflammation manifests itself:
- sharp pains, usually at night.
- joint swelling, hyperemia.
- weakness, fever, chills;
- increased nervousness;
- stool disorders.
Localization of gout in the small joints of the hands is atypical. However, gout can be a very likely explanation for why your toe joints hurt.
Psoriatic ARTHRITIS
Patients with psoriasis often develop chronic inflammation - psoriatic arthritis, the classic form of which is considered to be damage to the joints of the hands and feet. The disease usually develops imperceptibly, with a gradual increase in symptoms, although sometimes an acute onset is possible.You can suspect the development of arthritis with the following signs:
- the joints of the fingers and feet are sore in the morning or throughout the day.
- there is painful swelling.
- the skin over the joint becomes cyanotic.
- trophic changes occur.
The defeat of the joints in the future becomes the cause of deformation of the fingers, contractions, leads to the development of chronic arthritis, arthropathy.
Extra-articular rheumatism
Extra-articular rheumatism in the form of diseases of the soft peri-articular tissues often leads to pain in the fingers. The main factors of development are injuries, prolonged stereotypy of movements, hypothermia, humidity, infections, and often there is a lack of nutrition and blood supply.Pain can occur due to:
- tendinitis - a degenerative damage to the tendons.
- tenosynovitis (differently - tendinitis, ligamentitis) - inflammation of the middle part of the tendons, the inner lining of the sinus, extra-articular ligaments.
- folliculitis - an inflammatory process in the serous sac, usually due to tendinitis.
In the hands, the tendons of the wrist and hand are most often affected, which is connected to their almost continuous functional stress.Most often, the reasons why the finger on the hand hurts on the entire surface or in the joint are syndromes caused by:
- De Quervain's disease - tendinitis of the tendons of the muscles responsible for abduction and extension of the thumb.
- carpal tunnel syndrome - tenosynovitis of the flexors of the fingers, often combined with Guyon's canal syndrome - compression in the palmar joint of the ulnar nerve and ulnar artery.
- tendonitis of the wrist;
- Knott's disease ('finger snapping'), which affects the tendons of the superficial flexors of the fingers and their sheaths.
- bursitis (tenosullitis).
Pains usually appear or increase during movement, bother at night.Swelling, stiffness and sensory disturbances may be present.
Osteoarthritis
Degenerative-dystrophic processes in the articular cartilage with the formation of osteophytes - osteoporosis - is the most common variant of joint pathology, the frequency of which increases with age. It occurs for two reasons: increased mechanical impact on the joint and cartilage wear.
Damage to the joints of the hands leads to the fact that the finger or the entire palm hurts, initially only when bending, significant physical exertion, and then even at rest, in the morning, sometimes at night.In addition, the disease is accompanied by:
- stiffness, twitching;
- joint deformities;
- sometimes hot swelling.
Osteoarthritis is characterized by a long-term course with a gradual increase in symptoms, usually without sudden exacerbations. The main types of diseases that affect the hands are osteoarthritis of the interphalangeal joints and the metacarpal joint.
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Systemic lupus erythematosus
It is an autoimmune polysyndromic disease with a chronic course, generalized vascular damage and changes in the connective tissue. It mainly affects teenagers and young women in their 20s and 30s.
The development of the disease can be both subtle and acute, sudden. The gradual onset occurs against a background of weakness, weight loss, hypothermia, signs of arthritis (arthritis), minor skin manifestations. Acute - characterized by severe joint pain, fever and severe skin rashes.Also, the disease can be accompanied by:
- hair loss, nail changes;
- sensitivity disorders;
- stomatitis;
- damage to the cardiovascular system, most often pericarditis.
- sometimes muscle atrophy (mainly of the hands), deformation of the joints of the fingers, wrist, ankle.
- pulmonary pathologies (pneumonitis, candidiasis, tuberculosis, etc. )
- kidney damage (lupus glomerulonephritis).
- vegetative and emotional disorders.
- reduced intelligence, hallucinations, convulsions.
Arthritis is the most common symptom of systemic lupus erythematosus.
That is why the appearance of skin erythema and discomfort caused by the fact that the joints of the fingers hurt (especially if the causes of pain lie in the force created when clenching the hand) is the basis for examining thisdisease.
Diagnostics
Since pain in the joints of the hands can be caused by a very wide range of disorders, it is necessary to determine the exact reason why the fingers are stiff, swollen and/or painful.The diagnosis is made using the following studies:
- x-ray?
- scintigraphy;
- ultrasound examination;
- magnetic resonance or computed tomography.
- Immune tests;
- laboratory analysis of blood, urine.
If necessary, for an accurate diagnosis of the causes of pain in the finger joints, a tissue biopsy, analysis of synovial fluid is performed.
Methods of Treatment
It is impossible to independently determine what to do if painful swelling or finger joints hurt. Treatment is prescribed exclusively by a doctor after diagnosis and examination.
Medical care
In case the finger on the hand (when bending, abducting movement, resting) hurts a lot, short-term analgesics are allowed before examination by a specialist.
The joint should not be heated, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial agents should not be taken uncontrollably.
You can use an ointment that relieves acute pain in the joints of the fingers.
Further treatment depends on the disease and is usually complex.The treatment is aimed at:
- to relieve the flare-up with drugs, relieve pain with painkillers, anti-inflammatory ointments, gels.
- for the normalization of metabolic, immunological processes.
- to restore blood supply, improve joint nutrition, increase its functionality.
The syndromes that have developed in the context of the underlying pathology are treated. Blood purification procedures are used: plasmapheresis, bleeding. In severe cases, resort to surgical methods of treatment.
Physiotherapy
If the exact reason why the finger joints hurt is established, the main treatment is supplemented by various physiotherapeutic procedures and spa therapy methods: electrophoresis, mud applications, treatment with amplifiers and others.
Physiotherapy improves metabolic processes, normalizes blood circulation in the fingers.
Physiotherapy
Basic treatment necessarily involves unloading the joint, however, it is necessary to restore range of motion. To correct motor disorders of the fingers in the hands, gymnastics is performed using various compressions, pinches, abduction, stretching, which allows you to return mobility to the joints and sensitivity to the terminal phalanges. Joint pain that occurs in the fingers requires careful introduction of new exercises and a gradual increase in load.
Massage lessons
Therapeutic massage improves tissue trophism, helps alleviate the symptoms of the disease.However, with pain in the finger joints, there are often contraindications for massage, so the treatment should be carried out only with the permission of a doctor.
Folk remedies
Phytotherapy, compresses, rubbing, prepared according to folk recipes, can be useful when there are no contraindications and there is no refusal of drug treatment. They help relieve the condition if the fingers on the hand hurt a lot and for a long time.