thumb tendonitis or de quervain’s tendonitis - know for sure
Our hands are an important to almost any of our daily activities. If we are to injure our hands, wrist or even our fingers can impact how we function normally while playing, at work, at home and in the sport that we do.
When we get a health injury, this can impact how we do things. Some injuries that can happen can be thumb tendinitis and even Dequervains tendinitis. Getting these injuries can happen in a number of different ways.
Do I have Tendonitis of the thumb? What is it?
Here is some basic information on what is tendonitis in the thumb. This will happen when there is an irritation or swelling of the tendons of the hand. This happens with the tendons along the side of the wrist on the thumb side.
When you have this irritation, the compartment that surrounds the tendon swells. Then the compartment changes shape and the tendon can’t move in the compartment the way it should. You are going to feel pain and tenderness in the wrist when you go to make a fist, grab or pinch something or when you turn the wrist.
How does repetitive motion injury effect thumb tendonitis
Tasks that require some type of repetitive movements can turn out to be a big problem. You can end up with many different types of problems. Some of them are having severe pain in the hand, you can injure the nerves that run to the hand and wrist (carpal tunnel syndrome). You may even start to have your fingers start to lock or even click (trigger finger) and you can also have severe pain in the thumb.
Thumb Tendonitis, the signs and symptoms
When you suffer from thumb tendonitis, the first thing that is going to give it away is the pain on the thumb side of the wrist. This pain may appear suddenly or can come on gradually. You may think that this could be like some arthritic pain in your hand and wrist. It will start in the wrist and travel up the forearm if very severe.
You can feel a severe pain when you go and grab something or when you are twisting your wrist. Swelling will probably be obvious in the thumb area. A catching or locking of the fingers including the thumb may start to happen. You may start to feel a numbness on the index finger and the back of the thumb.
Things to do
One of the initial treatments is a thumb splint or brace to help support the thumb. Resting and some type of anti-inflammatory medication can be helpful. Icing the effective area can decrease the inflammation.
An effective treatment of De Quervain’s tendonitis or tendinitis in thumb is that your doctor may prescribe is a cortisone injection around the tendon to help decrease the swelling and provide pain relief.
If these do not help, then surgery may be necessary. This surgery would be come necessary if the pain continues or if it recurs. Surgical treatment is curative. It is a day surgery, with a small incision and then a splint for 10 days. The splint or braces can be used until the sutures are removed.
Thumb tendonitis and the way to tell if you are suffering
The Finkelstein test can be performed to tell if you have thumb tendonitis or Dequervain’s tendonitis. The following is the procedure to check for these problems.
* Make a fist with the fingers over the thumb.
* What you want to do next is bend the wrist in the direction of the little finger.
* When a patient is suffering from DeQuervain’s tendonitis or even thumb tendinitis, the above procedure can cause quite an amount of pain. Tenderness to the touch is also going to occur on the the base of the thumb.
Now you know how to see if you are really suffering from thumb tendonitis. Two steps and you know for sure.
