Pain in the joints of the fingers: causes and treatment, what to do if the joints of the fingers hurt

In older age groups, pain in the fingers is very common in both men and women. They are often accompanied by swelling, stiffness, and crunching when bending or straightening the joints. Such symptoms are not only a sign of natural aging of the body, but also clinical manifestations of various pathologies. Therefore, the cause of pain in the joints of the fingers must be established and treatment carried out immediately.

Causes of pain in the joints of the fingers

If pain occurs every week, then it can no longer be attributed to increased muscle tension after working with your hands for a long time. At the initial stage of development, inflammatory or degenerative pathologies manifest themselves in this way. Pain in the fingers is associated with the gradual destruction of bone and cartilage tissue, which can cause joint deformation and complete or partial immobility (ankylosis).

Arthritis

The joints of the fingers can be affected by rheumatoid, reactive, psoriatic arthritis - inflammatory, rapidly progressing pathologies. In addition to severe pain, inflammation is observed - redness and swelling of the skin, limited range of motion. And the course of infectious arthritis is often accompanied by signs of general intoxication of the body - increased body temperature, chills, and fever.

Still's disease

This is a severe autoimmune pathology, presumably developing due to an inadequate response of the immune system to the introduction of pathogenic microorganisms. Still's disease affects not only small and large joints. The skin, organs of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, and lymph nodes are damaged.

Osteoarthritis

This pathology is characterized by destruction of bone tissue with further deformation of the joints. With osteoarthritis, the fingers swell in the morning, and when you try to bend or straighten them, some resistance occurs. Acute pain appears only during relapses, and during remission - only mild discomfort.

Stenosing ligamentitis

Pathology develops due to frequently repeated monotonous movements. Stenosing ligamentitis affects the ligamentous-tendon apparatus of the hand, in which there is a locking of the finger in an extended or bent position. But such a pronounced symptom occurs at the final stage of the pathology, and at the initial stage it manifests itself as pain, crunching or clicking when bending the joints.

Gout

With gout, crystals of uric acid salts begin to deposit in the joints of the fingers, causing irritation of soft, cartilage, and bone tissues. An inflammatory process develops, which gradually involves ligaments, muscles, and tendons. During a gout attack, sharp, burning, throbbing pain occurs. The skin over the joints swells, turns red, and becomes hot to the touch.

Polyosteoarthrosis

Polyosteoarthritis is a form of osteoarthritis that affects several joints at once. Cartilage tissue becomes thinner, thickens, and loses its shock-absorbing properties. To stabilize the joints, bone structures begin to deform and grow with the formation of osteophytes. These growths injure soft tissues, which often leads to the development of an inflammatory process.

Injury

Pain in the joint of the fingers can be a consequence of a fracture, dislocation, subluxation, rupture of muscles, ligaments, tendons. A person receives such injuries when falling on a straight arm, a strong directed blow, or a bruise. If the victim does not seek medical help, the joint structures fuse in the wrong anatomical position, so the pain in the hands becomes constant and intensifies after hypothermia or a sudden change in weather.

Vibration disease

This pathology develops in workers in manual mechanized labor associated with the use of impact or rotary tools. Clinically, vibration disease is manifested not only by discomfort in the joints of the fingers, but also by vascular disorders, vasospasms, circulatory disorders, and surges in blood pressure.

Carpal tunnel syndrome

The cause of carpal tunnel syndrome is any pathology that provokes a decrease in the volume of the carpal tunnel (arthrosis, arthritis, lipoma). As a result, compression-ischemic damage to the median nerve occurs. Pain occurs, sensitivity decreases, patients complain to the doctor about feelings of numbness, tingling sensations, and crawling. Any movement of the hand is accompanied by weakness, especially if you need to grab an object with your thumb.

What should you pay attention to if you have pain in your fingers?

• Take a close look at your hands. Do they differ in size, skin condition, nails? If pain appears equally in the left and right hands, the presence of arthritis, arthrosis or other musculoskeletal diseases can be assumed; if only in one hand or a specific finger, the pain indicates inflammation or injury.
• From the back surface, examine your fingers for swelling. Is there a feeling of tightness, as if there is a ring on your finger? If there is even slight swelling or redness, this symptom may indicate synovitis of the interphalangeal joint.
• Deformities are a sign of a serious disease with pain in the fingers. Nodules on the interphalangeal joints are characteristic of osteoarthritis; protrusion of the metacarpal heads occurs as a result of subluxation.
• Much about the health of your fingers can be learned from the condition of your skin. For example, a rash between the fingers occurs with lupus, and thickening of the skin, accompanied by limited movement, is observed with scleroderma and other connective tissue diseases. A fracture or crack in a bone causes the skin in the affected area to turn blue and cause severe pain.

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Symptoms

Jerking, throbbing, acute pain in the finger joint is the leading symptom of gouty, infectious, rheumatoid arthritis, including juvenile arthritis. Associated symptoms are increased local temperature, redness and swelling of the skin.

Arthrosis and other degenerative-dystrophic pathologies at the initial stage of development are asymptomatic. Occasionally, mild pain occurs that disappears after a short rest. But their severity is constantly increasing. The pain is accompanied by stiffness, clicking when bending and (or) straightening the fingers.

Causes of pain

The causes of pain in the area of ​​the ring finger of the right hand include:

• Hypothermia, which causes temporary numbness of the limb;
• Development of osteochondrosis in the cervical or thoracic spine;
• Raynaud's syndrome, which involves a sharp spasm of blood vessels caused by oxygen starvation of tissues;
• Development of endocrine diseases, such as diabetes or hypothyroidism;
• Long-term consumption of alcoholic beverages, which causes joint destruction;
• Vitamin D deficiency in the body;
• Staying on an uncomfortable mattress or pillow for a long time usually causes pain to become more pronounced during sleep.

There is no need to attach importance to such a symptom, which is short-term in nature. Fingers may hurt due to impaired blood supply to the extremities - this is normal.

The pain goes away when changing position or rubbing the fingers. You should consult a rheumatologist if the pain is constant and the lesion begins to grow throughout the hand.

Consequences

In the absence of medical intervention, the intensity of pain increases against the background of deformation of the interphalangeal joints. At the final stage of any pathology, partial or complete fusion of the joint space occurs. A person is unable to bend or straighten his fingers, which causes loss of performance and disability.

Inflammatory and destructive processes gradually spread to healthy soft, cartilage, and bone tissues. Therefore, soon pain may be felt in several joints or fingers.

Treatment

When determining therapeutic tactics, the doctor (orthopedist, rheumatologist, traumatologist) takes into account the type of disease, the form of its course, the degree of tissue damage and the number of complications that have developed. Often, to reduce the severity of the patient's pain, it is recommended to wear soft bandages, splints or semi-rigid, rigid orthoses.

Medicines

In the treatment of pathologies manifested by pain in the joints of the fingers, drugs of various clinical and pharmacological groups are used. These are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), muscle relaxants, glucocorticosteroids, chondroprotectors. Medicines to improve blood circulation, B vitamins, and warming ointments are also used. To relieve acute pain, intramuscular and sometimes intra-articular administration of drugs is practiced. The use of tablets or ointments will help you get rid of less pronounced discomfort.

Massage

After relief of acute pain and inflammation, patients are prescribed sessions of classical, acupressure, vacuum, including hardware massage. Healing procedures help improve blood circulation, eliminate muscle spasms, and accelerate the recovery of damaged tissues.

Physiotherapy

Electrophoresis and ultraphonophoresis procedures help relieve pain or completely get rid of them. They use hormonal agents, chondroprotectors, anesthetics, analgesics, and B vitamins. To treat joint pathologies, patients can also be prescribed up to 10 sessions of magnetic therapy, laser therapy, and UHF therapy.

Physical exercise

Regular physical therapy exercises can quickly strengthen the muscles of the hand and prevent the progression of arthrosis or arthritis. A set of exercises is compiled by a physical therapy doctor, taking into account the type of disease. It usually includes rotation of the hand, flexion-extension of fingers, grasping and holding small objects.

Diet

The diet of a patient with arthritis or osteoarthritis should contain a lot of fresh herbs, vegetables, and fruits. It is necessary to completely exclude semi-finished products, smoked meats, fast food, fatty meats, and any alcohol from the daily menu. Instead, it is useful to eat rabbit meat, beef, fatty sea fish, clear soups, cereal porridges, and fermented milk products.

Pain and numbness in the finger

The most common disease, the symptom of which is pain in the extremities, is rheumatoid arthritis. It is caused by a malfunction of the immune system. The risk category includes women aged 25 to 35 years.

In rare cases, a similar symptom appears in children, adolescents and men. Rheumatoid arthritis can be recognized by the appearance of accompanying symptoms: redness of the skin, stiffness in limb movements after waking up.

Less common diseases include osteochondrosis, vibration disease, panaritium, polycythemia or tendinitis.

If the finger of your right hand is sore, this may be a temporary phenomenon or a sign of pathology. If pain persists for a long time and accompanying symptoms appear, you need to consult a rheumatologist.

Folk remedies

After basic treatment, pain and inflammation are eliminated, doctors may allow the use of traditional medicine. During the rehabilitation period, the use of certain decoctions, hand baths, and homemade ointments is allowed.

The use of infusions and decoctions of herbs

The course of pathologies that provoke pain in the fingers is often aggravated by the deterioration of a person’s psycho-emotional state. Drinking teas from medicinal plants will help improve it. St. John's wort, valerian, motherwort, thyme, lemon balm, and oregano have a general tonic, calming, and sleep-normalizing effect. To prepare the drink, a teaspoon of dry plant material (without a slide) is brewed with a glass of boiling water. Leave to infuse for a couple of hours, then filter and take 100 ml before bed.

Baked onion and wax ointment

Two peeled medium-sized onions are baked until soft, ground in a mortar until smooth, adding 20 g of wax melted in a water bath in portions. Apply the resulting mass to the joints and secure with a gauze bandage. The duration of the treatment procedure is 1-2 hours.

Ointment of honey and mustard with herbs

Pour a tablespoon of dried calendula and chamomile flowers into a container, pour in 0.5 cups of boiling water, and leave for 5 hours. In a mortar, mix a teaspoon of dry mustard and full-fat sour cream, add 2 tablespoons of honey. The resulting infusion is introduced drop by drop until a homogeneous mass is formed. Before using the ointment, the skin is lubricated with vegetable oil.

Herbal baths

Place 5 rose hips, juniper berries, barberries in a thermos, add a tablespoon of elecampane, St. John's wort, and birch buds. Pour in a liter of boiling water and leave for 2 hours. Cool slightly, strain, pour into a cup, and add more warm water if necessary. Dip the brushes into the resulting infusion for 30 minutes.

Oil baths

Fill a small container with warm water (1.5-2 liters), add 1-2 drops of rosemary, eucalyptus, and pine essential oils. Pour in a tablespoon of cosmetic almond oil and shake. Place your hands in the water for 30-40 minutes. After the procedure, rub any nourishing or moisturizing cream into the skin.

Straw baths

Pour 0.5 liters of chopped oat straw into a small saucepan and pour in 2 liters of hot water. Bring to a boil, simmer over low heat for 30-40 minutes. Cool to room temperature and strain. Pour the warm broth into a cup and keep the brushes in it for about half an hour.

Diagnosis and treatment of finger diseases at the MART clinic

In case of cuts, bites, or dissection of the skin, a surgeon will examine your condition based on a visual examination and immediately prescribe treatment. In this case, additional diagnostic methods may be required only if there is concern about blood poisoning.

The picture shows a hand deformity due to osteoarthritis.

If you experience pain in your fingers for which you can find no apparent reason, you should contact an orthopedic traumatologist. The doctor will analyze your medical history and ask about your complaints and symptoms. Based on the information received, you will be prescribed the necessary diagnostics, which may include x-rays, MRI, blood and urine tests. If the nerve is damaged, you will need to consult a neurologist.

If pain occurs as a result of an injury, an orthopedic traumatologist will refer you to undergo an X-ray or magnetic resonance examination, based on the results of which a course of treatment will be prescribed aimed at restoring bones, ligaments or tissues, depending on the nature of the damage.

To eliminate pain and the root causes of the disease, the MART medical center uses treatment methods such as:

1. Physiotherapy, which allows you to comprehensively influence the source of pain and have a beneficial effect on the body as a whole
2. Therapeutic mass affecting connective tissues and muscles
3. Drug treatment for rapid elimination of pain and inflammation
4. Physical therapy, which has many techniques to strengthen the body