Advice from a Certified Hand Therapist: Safety Tips to Avoid Common Holiday Injuries

Dec 30,2016 / By the American Society of Hand Therapists / 2 Comments

Many of us start our holiday preparations by “making a list and checking it twice!” Suddenly, we are overwhelmed by its length. The fact that baking, decorating, shopping, wrapping and travel all come before December 25 can be dismaying. If this describes your current quandary, please continue to read about how you can have a safe and enjoyable holiday season!

The most commonly reported decorating injuries are lacerations, back strains and falls. Luggage-related injuries increased to approximately 75,500 annually, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH) reports that holiday hand injuries are caused by carving a turkey, ham or roast and that tendon and nerve injuries are caused during meal cleanup (contact with a sharp knife or a broken glass).

Here are simple holiday tips for ladder safety, luggage transport and meat carving:

Skiing Safety and Snowboarding Safety Tips

Dec 26,2016 / By The Hand Society / No Comment

Finger Hand Systemic Disease

8 Examples of Systemic Diseases

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

A systemic disease is a disease that affects other parts of the body, or even the whole body. The hands are complex. They are composed of many types of tissue including blood vessels, nerves, skin and skin-related tissues, bones, and muscles/tendons/ligaments. Because of this complexity, the hands may suffer from side effects of systemic diseases. Here are some examples that may affect the hand:

1. Arthritic Swelling: Swelling of the middle joint of a finger is called a Bouchard’s node, and swelling at the small finger joints are called Heberden’s nodes.

2. Dactylitis: Dactylitis can sometimes be associated with psoriatic arthritis. It can cause swelling and stiffness in the fingers. There also may be pain. This swelling may be improved with medicines for the problem causing it.

3. Mucous Cyst: With a mucous cyst, if the skin becomes thin, the cyst may break resulting in drainage of a clear sticky fluid. This may allow bacteria to reach the nearby joint, causing a joint or bone infection.

Arthritis Hand Thumb Thumb Arthritis

How to Treat Thumb Arthritis

Dec 18,2016 / By The Hand Society / 1 Comment

Thumb arthritis can cause you to feel pain and weakness when you try to pinch things (with your thumb and index finger) and also when you try to grasp objects. It can be painful opening jars, turning doorknobs or keys, and sometimes writing. This condition is genetic. Just like gray hair, it comes on with age; however, women tend to have thumb arthritis more often than men. With some families, it can show up at a younger age.

Like other types of arthritis, this condition is due to the thinning of cartilage, which covers our joints. Without this cartilage, the joints cannot allow the bones to move as smoothly as they normally would, which causes pain.

Because thumb arthritis is typically part of the aging process, treatment can sometimes be unnecessary. To ease the pain, the follow treatments are sometimes used:

Hand Hand Surgeon Hand Surgery

What Can a Hand Surgeon Do?

Dec 14,2016 / By The Hand Society / 2 Comments

Most hand surgeons can treat more than just the hand. They can also treat your shoulder, elbow, arm and wrist. A hand surgeon can also provide a variety of treatments that do not include surgery. They can help you find a hand therapist to reduce your pain, or they can recommend other options such as splints or injections. Hand surgeons can see you for an injury, such as a broken bone, dislocation or jammed finger, for general pain, or for a condition such as:

Carpal tunnel syndrome
Arthritis
Trigger finger
Tennis elbow
Etc.

Use our Find a Hand Surgeon tool to find a specialist in your area. Our tool includes more than 3,000 board-certified hand surgeons, both orthopaedic and plastic surgeons, who are members of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Watch our short video to learn more about hand surgery:

Anatomy Brachial Plexus Nerves Shoulder

Anatomy 101: Brachial Plexus

Dec 11,2016 / By The Hand Society / 2 Comments

The brachial plexus is a group of nerves that stem from the spinal cord in the neck and travel all the way down the arm. These nerves control the muscles of the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand. They also provide feeling in the arm.

It starts with the five “roots” at the neck. The second level is called “trunks,” which continue toward the shoulder then divide into the third layer of two nerves called the anterior division and the posterior division. The nerves in the fourth layer are called “cords,” and the final layer is comprised of the “branches” that feed the shoulder and arm. See the image below for details.

Cold Hands May Signal Raynaud’s Phenomenon

Dec 7,2016 / By The Hand Society / No Comment

from the New York Times

The adage “Cold hands, warm heart” might describe me accurately if it also included “cold feet.” Every autumn, even before the leaves begin to fall from their airy perch, I begin an annual search for better ways to keep my hands and feet from freezing during the coming winter.

My investment in mittens and boots could stock a store and includes what is touted as the warmest of warm, but so far no product has been sufficiently protective. The popular advice, “Move to a warmer climate,” doesn’t mesh with my life’s interests, and so the search continues.

I may or may not have a version of Raynaud’s phenomenon, but I can surely empathize with those who do. First described in 1862 by a French medical student named Maurice Raynaud, it is characterized by highly localized cold-induced spasms of small blood vessels that disrupt blood flow to the extremities, most often the fingers and toes and sometimes also the tips of the ears and nose.

Viewed in the best possible light, it is a patriotic disorder: Affected areas typically turn white when vessels collapse and cut off blood flow, then blue for lack of oxygen-rich blood, then red as blood flow is gradually restored when the areas rewarm.

Monthly Archives: Dec 2016

Advice from a Certified Hand Therapist: Safety Tips to Avoid Common Holiday Injuries

Skiing Safety and Snowboarding Safety Tips

8 Examples of Systemic Diseases

How to Treat Thumb Arthritis

What Can a Hand Surgeon Do?

Anatomy 101: Brachial Plexus

Cold Hands May Signal Raynaud’s Phenomenon