![]() Psoriatic arthritis can also affect the hands and may look similar to osteoarthritis. It's less common for the joints where your fingers meet your hand to be affected by osteoarthritis, so if you have pain and swelling in these joints your doctor may ask for blood tests to check for rheumatoid arthritis. But if it builds up it can form crystals in the joints, leading to sever pain and swelling. Urate is a waste product which is normally flushed out of the body through the kidneys. ![]() If your doctor thinks it may be gout then they'll want to check your urate levels through a blood test. ![]() Sometimes gout can affect the hands and this can look very much like osteoarthritis. Blood tests are sometimes helpful if there's any doubt about whether it's osteoarthritis or another type of arthritis that's causing your symptoms. Although x-rays will show changes in the shape or structure of the joint, they're often not needed to confirm the diagnosis. It's often possible for your doctor to diagnose osteoarthritis of the hand from your symptoms and a simple examination, without any need for tests. If you have these symptoms regularly you should see your GP. It can also cause pain, especially at night. This can cause weakness, numbness or pins and needles in the hand. This is where a nerve to the hand is squeezed by swelling in the wrist joint or in the tendons next to the nerve. However, many people with hand osteoarthritis will never develop it in any other joints.Ī condition called carpal tunnel syndrome can sometimes develop as a result of osteoarthritis of the wrist. People who develop knobbly swellings or nodes at the finger joints tend to have an increased risk of developing osteoarthritis of the knee as well. However, the weather won't affect the long-term outlook or how the condition progresses. Sometimes the weather, especially cold weather, can make your symptoms worse. And the range of movement in the joints doesn't always improve even when the pain does. Any firm, knobbly swellings or nodes that have developed will remain though. It may be painful for a few years and then the pain may improve, especially if only the small finger joints are affected. Hand osteoarthritis often tends to 'burn out' after a time. shaving, brushing your teeth, or drying yourself after a bath or shower.Swelling can also cause the soft tissues around a joint to stretch, which can make your hands feel weak or unstable.Īs we use our hands such a lot in daily life, pain, stiffness or poor grip strength can cause problems with a wide variety of tasks and activities including: You're likely to have pain, especially when using your hands but sometimes even while resting. If the joints are inflamed then they're likely to look swollen and red and to feel warm and tender to the touch. You may find this depends on what you're doing, but sometimes there may not be any obvious reason. You'll probably have good days and bad days. The symptoms of hand osteoarthritis can vary between different people and over time. carrying out repetitive tasks over a long period of time.Some of the factors that can make you more likely to develop osteoarthritis in your hands include: Osteoarthritis can affect anyone at any age, but it's more common in women over the age of 50. They're caused by the growth of bony spurs called osteophytes. These are known as Heberden's nodes or Bouchard's nodes depending on which joints are affected. You may have firm, knobbly swellings at the finger joints. Osteoarthritis causes the cartilage in your joints to thin and the surfaces of the joint to become rougher, which means that the joints may not move as smoothly as they should, and they might feel painful and stiff. But sometimes it can cause changes in the shape or structure of the joints. This allows the bones to move smoothly against each other and protects the joint from stress.Įveryone's joints go through a cycle of damage and repair, and often the repair process is quite effective. The ends of the bones are covered in a smooth and slippery surface, known as cartilage. A joint is a part of the body where two or more bones meet. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, and the hand and wrist joints are among the most commonly affected.
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