Diseases and Conditions
Hand and wrist pain can have many causes. Your type of pain can provide clues to the condition causing the pain. You may be experiencing:
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Acute or severe pain that comes on suddenly usually as the result of an injury or trauma
- Chronic pain with arthritis or overuse as the most common causes
In some cases, joint pain is made worse by the fact that a person will avoid using a painful joint, weakening the muscles and making the joint even more difficult to move. To understand your pain, it's helpful to understand how these joints work:
Wrist
Your wrist is a complex joint. The two bones of the lower arm — the radius and the ulna — meet at the hand to form the wrist. Eight small bones (carpal bones) are arranged in two rows between the bones in your forearm and the bones in your hand. These marble-sized bones provide the wrist's flexibility and mobility. Tough bands of ligament connect the carpal bones to each other and to the forearm and hand bones. Damage to your ligaments, bones or cartilage can cause pain and affect your ability to use your wrist and hand.
Hand
The palm of the hand is composed of five metacarpal bones laid out from the wrist, as a fan. Every hand has 14 long bones named the phalanges. These bones compose the fingers and the thumb. Each finger has three phalanges and the thumb only two.
Each hand contains:
- 29 major and minor bones (many people have a few more)
- 29 major joints
- At least 123 named ligaments
- 34 muscles, which move the fingers and thumb:17 in the palm of the hand, and 18 in the forearm
- 48 named nerves: 3 major nerves
- 24 named sensory branches. 21 named muscular branches
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30 named arteries and nearly as many smaller named branches
Hand and wrist conditions
- Guide to Wrist Pain
- First Aid for Animal Bites
- Broken Hand and Wrist
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Carpal Release (Image)
- De Quervain's Disease
- Dupuytren's Contracture
- Ganglion Cyst
- Pinched Nerve
- Sprains and Strains
- Reynaud's Disease
- Tendonitis
Arthritis
Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis can cause degeneration in the joints of the hand and wrist. To find out more about these degenerative conditions see the following articles:
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