Hand pain

DDx

  • Trauma or overuse, eg, fracture, dislocation, tendinitis
  • Trigger finger
  • Arthritis, eg, osteoarthritis (DIP & PIP joints), rheumatoid arthritis (MCPs, not DIPs), psoriatic arthritis, reactive arthritis (Reiter’s syndrome), gout, septic arthritis
  • Finger: felon (infected pad), paronychia, subungual hematoma
  • Area of first CMC joint: osteoarthritis, DeQuervain’s tenosynovitis, scaphoid fracture (snuffbox pain)
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome
  • Pronator teres syndrome (median nerve entrapment at level of pronator teres)
  • Flexor tenosynovitis, eg, overuse, rheumatoid arthritis, gonococcal
  • Dupuytren’s contracture
  • Ulnar nerve entrapment at the wrist
  • Brachial plexus neuropathy
  • Cervical nerve root compression, eg, herniated disk
  • Superficial radial neuropathy (cheiralgia paresthetica or handcuff neuropathy)
  • Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
  • Thoracic outlet syndrome
  • Vascular, eg, Raynaud’s syndrome, thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger’s disease), erythromelalgia
  • Angina pectoris (left-sided pain)

There's more to see -- the rest of this topic is available only to subscribers.

Last updated: December 1, 2014