How to Get to the Root of Your Hand Pain

No one ever thinks about hand pain until it strikes. Suddenly, they realize how much they rely on their hands and the multitude of tasks they can’t perform with hand pain. The first step toward pain relief is getting to the root of the problem.

Holding your partner’s hand, clapping for an excellent performance, and using tools or a keyboard at work are just a few parts of life affected by hand pain. But struggling with daily tasks isn’t the only reason to get help for your hands.

Your hand pain will only get worse if you don’t seek treatment. If you’re struggling with hand problems, you can count on our Florida Pain Medicine team to identify the cause. Then, we provide customized care to overcome the pain and regain optimal hand function.

Getting to the root of hand pain

Finding the root cause of your hand pain requires a thorough diagnostic process. As our team learns about your symptoms, we use each piece of information to guide the next step.

Combining your exam with our hand pain expertise, we can either identify the cause of your pain or determine we need additional diagnostic tests to get to the root of the problem.

These are the steps we take:

1. Learn your medical history

Your medical history includes a general history of health problems you may have experienced and medications you take. We also learn about your current hand problem, obtaining critical information such as:

Prior problems with your hands
Your occupation (does your job require repetitive hand movements or constant pressure from holding items)
Injuries or falls affecting your hand
Where and when any injuries occurred
The position of your hand and fingers during the injury
Prior hand treatments and length of your recovery

2. Complete a physical exam

The exam begins with visually examining your fingers, hand, and wrist, looking for signs of swelling, lesions, lumps, and bone or joint deformities. We feel each joint and muscle, checking for tenderness and determining if there's muscle loss.

In addition to moving each joint to evaluate the range of motion, we will ask you to move your hands and fingers into certain positions and assess the strength of your grip and each finger.

If needed, we may perform many additional tests during your physical exam. A few examples include:

Phalen’s test (to assess tingling associated with carpal tunnel syndrome)
Allen’s test (to determine the blood supply to your hand)
Bunnel’s test (to assess muscle tightness)
Two-point discrimination test (to evaluate fingertip sensation)

These tests don’t require advanced techniques. Instead, we may gently press an artery, use metal calipers to touch your finger, or ask you to flex your wrist.

3. Run diagnostic tests

If we can determine the cause of your hand pain after your physical exam, we may need additional diagnostic tests to see and assess your bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and nerves.

Examples include:

X-ray

X-rays reveal fractures and dislocations and may indicate changes caused by arthritis.

Ultrasound

Ultrasound can show bone problems, but unlike an X-ray, it’s especially beneficial for diagnosing problems in soft tissues (tendons, ligaments, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves). For example, we may use ultrasound to see a torn tendon or ligament, identify a cyst, or see pinched nerves.

Electromyogram (EMG)

EMG testing shows how well nerves communicate with muscles and the muscles’ response to nerves.

MRI

You may need an MRI if you have pain, tingling, numbness, or weakness that we can’t diagnose with other diagnostic tests. MRIs can get sharper soft tissue images and show changes and problems that may not be visible with other imaging techniques, such as nerve compression and the extent of cartilage degeneration.

CT scan

A CT scan shows a fracture in the wrist’s scaphoid bone, an injury that usually doesn’t show up on X-rays.

After your diagnosis

After diagnosing the reason for your hand pain, we recommend a treatment plan to eliminate the pain and restore strength, mobility, and function.

Though there are many possible causes of hand pain, ranging from cysts, tendonitis, and arthritis to fractures, sprains, and compressed nerves, several key treatment options exist. Your care plan may include:

Rest and activity modification
Immobilization, bracing, and splinting
Ergonomic training
Anti-inflammatory medication
Physical therapy
Corticosteroid injections
Nerve blocks
Radiofrequency ablation

Though these are the most common treatments, this isn’t a complete list of possible options.

Need help with hand pain?

Whether you just suffered an injury or struggle with ongoing hand pain, our Florida Pain Medicine team can get to the root of the problem. Call the nearest office today, or complete our online form to request your appointment.