How to know if you have Cold Hand Disease

Oct 26,2016 / By The Hand Society / 1 Comment

Do your hands always seem cold? You may have cold hand disease, which is a condition that can occur due to a decrease in blood flow in the hand. Here are some signs that you may have this disease:

Your hands are cold even in mild weather.
Your fingers hurt in cold temperatures.
You have to wear gloves when handling frozen foods.
Your hands turn a shade of blue, white or red sometimes.
Minor cuts on your fingers take longer to heal than normal.

In a normal hand, blood travels from the heart, down the arm, all the way to the fingertips, which keeps the hands warm. In an individual with cold hand disease, blood flow is decreased due to vasoconstriction (when the blood vessels in the hand become smaller, allowing less blood to flow) or vaso-occlusion (when the normal process of temporarily applying more muscle pressure to your blood vessels becomes abnormally strong or prolonged).

Burns Hand Skin

4 Degrees of Burns

Oct 22,2016 / By The Hand Society / No Comment

Burns are the result of the death of cells in the skin, when the skin comes in contact with something hot. The treatment and recovery time after a burn depend on the severity. Here are the four degrees of burns and how they may be treated:

1st Degree: This is a superficial burn that will turn your skin red but will not create blisters. It will heal in about a week. Treatment includes using local pain killers.
2nd Degree: This type of burn results in partial thickness skin damage. Blisters will be present with a 2nd degree burn. To treat this, you will wear a splint on your hand/forearm. Your doctor will clean the wound and apply a topical antibiotic (such as a cream). It will heal in 2-3 weeks.
3rd Degree: This type of burn results in full thickness skin damage. The skin will be white and leathery. You will need surgery if your burn is this severe. Surgery will include removing the dead skin and replacing it with skin grafts. It can take months to fully recover from such an injury.
4th Degree: This burn is the same as a third-degree burn, but it causes damage to tendons, joints and/or bones. You may need more than one surgery.

Serious burns may also need treatment with a hand therapist. Learn more about burns of the upper extremity as well as other injuries and conditions at www.HandCare.org.

Advice from a Certified Hand Therapist: Pumpkin fun without knives!

Oct 18,2016 / By the American Society of Hand Therapists / No Comment

My children love carving pumpkins at Halloween. I worry about them cutting their fingers. How can we keep everyone’s hands safe?

Take a look at the safety tips published last year by the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH). The pumpkin carving tools in the kits at your grocery or pharmacy are safer to use than knives. There is a blog article from last year on just this topic!

There are tons of fun decorating ideas that don’t involve young folks using knives. Here are just a few:

Use push pins or adhesive jewels to script a word such as “EEK!” or “BOO!” or to draw the outline of a ghost or bat.

Push small picture-hanging nails into the pumpkin and use brightly colored yarn wound around the nails for an abstract pattern.

After an adult scoops out the pulp and seeds, use a hand drill or spin a screwdriver to punch out the dotted outline of your favorite scary pumpkin face or the outline of a haunted house. A light source inside will shine through the holes and illuminate your scene. A string of Christmas lights can be pushed through the holes for a sparkly effect.

Coat your pumpkin with chalkboard spray paint. Use a white chalk marker to create a spooky design.

Use a hairdryer to melt crayons over your pumpkin.

Anatomy Hand Upper Extremity

Anatomy 101: What is the Upper Extremity?

Oct 16,2016 / By The Hand Society / No Comment

You may know the term “upper extremity” because you were advised to visit an upper extremity specialist, or you read the term in a textbook or online. But what does it mean? “Upper extremity” is a term used to define the upper limb. The upper extremity includes the:

Shoulder
Arm
Forearm
Wrist
Hand

Within the upper extremity, there are bones, joints, muscles, nerves, vessels and tendons that tie all of the parts together. Learn more about the anatomy of the upper extremity, in addition to injuries and conditions that affect the entire limb, on www.HandCare.org.

An Overview of Wrist Replacement Surgery

Oct 12,2016 / By The Hand Society / 2 Comments

Guest post by Avery Arora, MD

Medical science has advanced considerably over the years when it comes to replacing damaged joints. Knee and hip replacements have become commonplace, but chances are you have not heard all that much about wrist replacement surgery. This is because it is somewhat less common, but as with other types of joint replacement, it can restore good quality of life to a patient who needs it.

The Procedure

Wrist replacement, also referred to as arthroplasty, works by removing the damaged cartilage and bone in the wrist joint. Then, the wrist bone is resurfaced using implants created from polyethylene and metal alloy to duplicate the function of a healthy joint. The operation has a very high success rate and can reduce or even eliminate the pain. Conditions like bone fractures and other traumas, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis that do not respond to other treatment methods can be dramatically improved.

The Benefits

Wrist replacement surgery, in addition to reducing or eliminating pain, can deliver improved mobility and allow you to return to the activities you once enjoyed. It is likely that you will even be able to participate in low-impact sports.

Monthly Archives: Oct 2016

How to know if you have Cold Hand Disease

4 Degrees of Burns

Advice from a Certified Hand Therapist: Pumpkin fun without knives!

Anatomy 101: What is the Upper Extremity?

An Overview of Wrist Replacement Surgery