The wrist joint is very important for human health and normal functioning, since it is he who is responsible for the movement of our hand. Therefore, if your wrist joint hurts, do not close your eyes to it. It is better to immediately deal with the causes of this phenomenon and urgently begin treatment to restore its normal, painless functioning.
Symptomatic manifestations of pain
Before you begin to find out the causes of pain in the wrist joint, you should understand for yourself what kind of pain you feel and what other symptoms accompany it. First of all, you need to pay attention to:
- severe acute pain, which makes it impossible to even move a hand;
- the occurrence of swelling and redness in the wrist;
- muscle weakness in the arm that accompanies pain;
- a problem with the motor ability of the hand;
- the response of the wrist to a change of time of day or a change in weather;
- cases when the wrist joint hurts when bending or extending the arm or fist;
- cases of pain when moving the forearm.
- numbness or discomfort in the hand, occasionally.
Causes of pain
However, pain in the wrist is not always the result of the development of a disease in a person. For example, discomfort in pregnant women often occurs in the wrist joint due to abrupt weight gain, and therefore immediately passes after childbirth. But in most cases, it is very important to know why the wrist joint hurts, so that as soon as possible get rid of this discomfort.
- Injuries and muscle strains often cause pain in the wrist and can even lead to inflammation or bleeding in this area.
- Tenditis or styloiditis occurs when the wrist is constantly loaded and a number of repetitive movements are performed. So such a disease is often manifested in athletes who do rowing, golf or tennis, drivers, builders, agricultural workers and the mining industry.
- Tunnel syndrome occurs due to prolonged uniform movements of the hands and the uncomfortable position of the hand. Often they suffer from people who spend most of their time at the computer.
- Arthrosis can occur as a result of a poorly healed fracture, age-related changes or constant overload of the joints of the hands.
- De Querven’s disease can occur in people who constantly loaded the thumb, for example, tailors or pianists.
- If the wrist joint hurts on the left hand and this pain comes up, plus shortness of breath, pressing chest pain, nausea, excessive sweating, a feeling of fear or anxiety, then this can be a symptom of coronary heart disease or myocardial infarction.
- If pain in the wrist is accompanied by pain or discomfort in the spine, knees or ankles, this may be the cause of the development of connective tissue diseases - rheumatoid arthritis, gout, systemic lupus erythematosus, or ankylosing spondylitis.
Diagnosis of the disease
And now we finally figured out why a person has a wrist joint that hurts. How to treat it now? But there is no need to hurry with this, because a real diagnosis, and therefore the right treatment, can be made only by an experienced specialist - a neuropathologist or orthopedist. First of all, the doctor will carry out a thorough examination of the patient, paying the closest attention to his wrist and ray-elbow joints, in order to identify their deformation and visually assess the degree of damage. Then the doctor will interview the patient, ask him to clench his fists and move his hands in order to accurately assess the nature of the pain during movement.
However, if such an examination does not give the doctor an accurate understanding of why the wrist joints of the hands still hurt the patient, treatment should not be carried out, but an additional diagnosis of the condition should be carried out. To do this, the specialist can prescribe the patient an electromyography, which will allow to diagnose the functional state of the tissues and muscles of the joint, radiography, ultrasound, diagnostic puncture, CT, MRI or arthroscopy, which will allow you to see damage to the inner part of the wrist joint.
Joint injuries and sprain
The most common causes for wrist joints to hurt are their injuries and sprains caused by falls or bruises. In such cases, the pain, especially at the very beginning, will be acute, and after a while it will either intensify or subside. And in addition to it, the wrist may stop working and a swelling forms on it. The first thing in this case is to stop the bleeding if an open wound appears during a fall or impact, and then you need to urgently put a splint on the wrist joint and anesthetize it using cold. After this, you need to urgently go to the clinic, so that the specialist can assess the degree of joint damage and prescribe the appropriate treatment.
Tunnel syndrome
Many people who have a sedentary lifestyle and spend a huge amount of time at the computer have another reason why they have pain in the wrist joints - this is tunnel syndrome, also called carpal tunnel syndrome. Such a disease is manifested by the appearance of discomfort in the wrist, frequent pains in it, as well as numbness of the hand and weakness in it. And all because because of the work at the computer, the patient has a pinched nerve, which provokes pain and swelling of the tendons. In this case, you need to try to sit less at the computer and at least for a while give your hand a rest without overstressing it.
Arthritis
Still very often when asked why the wrist joint hurts, the doctor will answer that this is due to arthritis, which manifests itself as an inflammatory process in the joint capsule. In addition to pain, arthritis is also characterized by an increase in skin temperature of the wrist, swelling, swelling, redness and impaired joint function. At the first signs of this disease, it is better to go to the doctor who will prescribe the patient an MRI and biochemical blood test, which will detect the disease even at an early stage. And then, taking into account the cause of the disease and its stage, treatment will be prescribed. In acute arthritis or its exacerbation, the doctor will try to simply immobilize the joint and prescribe antibacterial and anti-inflammatory drugs, and in case of a chronic disease, he will explain how to monitor the wrist and what exercises to perform to maintain it in good condition.
Arthrosis
There are also a considerable number of people who have a wrist joint due to arthrosis. This disease is characterized by crunching in the affected area and pain in the joint when it is in motion, which immediately stops when the wrist is at rest.
The problem is that it is best to try to identify this disease at an early stage, since in the future it can lead to serious destruction and deformation of the fingers, which threatens with serious problems. Moreover, at an early stage, this disease can still be cured by electrophoresis, massage, manual therapy, ozokerite or cold compresses, and in the future, it will be possible to get rid of arthrosis only by surgical intervention.
Hygroma
Separately, mention should be made of those people who have a wrist joint that hurts, a lump appears on the wrist and numbness of the hands is periodically felt. This phenomenon is characteristic of people who perform frequent repetitive movements of their hands, athletes who heavily load their hand, and people who often injure it.
At first, this bump is almost invisible, but over time it can grow up to 5 cm and cause terrible pain. Therefore, although a hygroma is a benign tumor, having noticed a seal in the wrist, you should consult a doctor who will either remove the formation by surgery, or prescribe a special treatment, under the influence of which the tumor will resolve.
Drug treatment
And now, finally, we know why the wrist joint hurts. How to treat only him, it remains to find out. And it is very simple if you go to the doctor and then relentlessly follow his instructions.
First of all, he will conduct a thorough examination of the patient, and then prescribe him the appropriate treatment and prescribe the drugs that need to be taken so that the joint returns to normal. As general therapy, the patient can be prescribed painkillers, antitumor and anti-inflammatory drugs, as well as vitamins, which will help strengthen immunity and improve the functioning of ligaments and bones.
If the patient is diagnosed with de Quervin’s disease, the doctor may prescribe a drug with hormones such as Kenologist or Diprospanoma. If the patient suffers from infectious arthritis, he will be prescribed antibiotics, and for connective tissue diseases the patient will have to take glucocorticoids or cytostatics.
Physiotherapy
But not always, if the wrist joints of the hands hurt, you can cure this pain with medications. Sometimes, in addition to medical treatment, the doctor may prescribe physiotherapy to his patient, which is simply necessary for de Quervin's disease, arthrosis and tunnel syndrome. In this case, the patient will need to undergo a full course of procedures:
- electrophoresis;
- paraffin or mud therapy;
- magnetotherapy or laser therapy;
- UHF therapy.
True, if a patient has systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis, physiotherapy will be categorically contraindicated, since it will only exacerbate the disease.
Surgical intervention
Most often, doctors try to eliminate the pain and cure the disease using a course of procedures or medications. However, it often happens that patients come to them too late, when the disease has already reached its peak and has developed so much that it can only be cured surgically, because otherwise it will develop even more, and then the consequences will be most dire.
Such operations are carried out with tunnel syndrome, if even after six months of treatment the symptoms of the disease persist, with hygroma, if the lump grows too big and causes a lot of inconvenience, with deceased Kerwen’s disease, when you urgently need to expand the channel through which the tendon passes in order to restore working capacity brushes, as well as in severe cases of arthritis or arthrosis.
And, of course, surgery is necessary for fractures, torn ligaments and intraarticular injuries of the wrist joint, because without this operation a person simply cannot move his hand, and the pain will be completely unbearable.
Massage and exercise therapy
A very important place in the elimination of pain in the wrist joint is exercise therapy and special massage, which contribute to the full restoration of their previous performance. Especially should not be neglected by exercises and massage for those patients who injured their joint or suffered from arthrosis or tunnel syndrome.
In addition, therapeutic gymnastics is extremely necessary for those patients who suffer from arthritis, only it must be performed only during the period of remission, since during the period of acute pain it is better to keep the arm motionless so as not to aggravate the situation.
Prevention
And so that we do not think what to do if the wrist joint hurts, it is better to simply prevent the appearance of this pain by following a few simple recommendations. This is especially true for those people who are at risk for problems with the wrist.
- You need to pick up any objects with the whole brush, and not just with your fingers.
- Working with vibrating objects and playing sports, you should wear specialized gloves that will provide support to the wrist.
- While working at the computer, you should take breaks for 5-10 minutes every hour in order to give rest to your hands.
- Before doing sports, you always need to do warm-up exercises.
- When working at a computer, make sure that your hands are in the most comfortable and anatomically correct position.
- Periodically, exercises should be performed to strengthen the wrist joint.
- At the first sensation of discomfort in the wrist, you should give your hands a rest or at least temporarily change the type of load.