Hand Pain

Suppose you notice your hands and fingers ache daily or that typing and using your hands to hold things have become particularly difficult or uncomfortable. In that case, you may have carpal tunnel syndrome.

The carpal tunnel is a narrow opening on your wrist that runs along the palm of your hand. It protects the nerve (i.e., median), blood vessels, and tendons that allow you to bend your fingers.

Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when the median nerve becomes irritated or compressed. This condition typically causes tingling and numbness in your fingers or hand. Usually, the symptoms are felt in the thumb and index fingers or middle or ring fingers.

When excessive pressure is put on the median nerve, it makes it difficult for it to do its job. For some, the condition will progress, lead to weakness in the hand, and cause people to drop items.

Carpal tunnel is often associated with overuse-type injuries, particularly among construction and manufacturing workers that are required to lift, grip, and perform forceful wrist motions. This condition can develop from overuse of the wrist and regular, repetitive activities like typing or writing. Or certain sports like golfing, tennis/pickleball, and rock climbing.

The Physical Therapy Center will treat your carpal tunnel syndrome without surgery safely and comfortably.

Tendonopathy is a diagnosis that describes any problem with a tendon, including disease, injury, or disorder. The most common types of injuries to a tendon include:

Tendonitis: Tendinitis is defined as an inflammation of the tendon. Acute injuries, including small or partial tearing, can result in an inflammatory response and pain, particularly when the affected area is moved.

One way to identify this condition is how quickly it heals. These types of injuries heal quickly as they move through inflammation to tissue repair.

Tendonosis: Tendinosis describes a dysfunctional tendon and typically does not specify the pathological process. It is generally used to describe overuse-type conditions. Recent research has concluded that most overuse tendon pathologies do not have inflammatory cells.

It is important to note that overuse tendon disorders often take a long time to heal and are a slow process. In some cases, treating degenerative collagen with anti-inflammatory medication, such as corticosteroid injections or oral medications, can impair the healing process!

Tendon injuries to the hand and fingers can be particularly debilitating. The tolerance of these tendons is less than some of the bigger tendons in the body, and particular care needs to be taken to ensure no lasting problems or persistent disability.

At The Physical Therapy Center, our physical therapists will give you proper guidance to ensure you rehabilitate your condition fully!

The nerves that run from the neck through the upper arm, elbow, wrist, and into the hand include the ulnar, radial, and median nerves. These nerves can impact the hand and lead to significant disability if they are not taken care of properly.

The most common nerve injuries are trauma from falling or accidents using power tools. They also include traction and compression-type injuries, especially in athletes who place forceful, repetitive stresses across their wrist, hand, and fingers.

Nerve injuries are typically noticed as numbness, tingling, or temperature loss. Nerve injuries resulting from overuse (i.e., carpal tunnel syndrome or De Quervain’s) are accompanied by swelling that reduces the nerve’s ability to function correctly. Muscle function is disrupted in cases of severe nerve injury, and paralysis can occur.

Falls and crush–type injuries commonly cause hand fractures. Many injuries come from stretching your hands to catch and break your fall. This can cause a break in the fingers and hand.

Hand fractures are also related to twisting injuries or other impacts to the hand, like punching (i.e., boxer’s fracture) or jamming the fingers playing sports like basketball or football.

In some cases, casts, splints, or immobilization of some kind is needed to give the bones a chance to heal correctly. The longer the hand and fingers are immobilized, the more likely they will be stiff and weak when immobilization ends.

Fortunately, our physical therapists know how to minimize any restrictions or weaknesses you may be dealing with and ensure you recover using your hands without limits!