Hand and Upper Extremity Specialist
If you play golf long enough, you’ll have wrist pain – it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when.
In this article I’ll cover some basics of wrist pain in golfers and point you to some great resources on golf injuries in the hand and arm.
[Read more…] about Wrist Pain In Golfers – Symptoms, Treatment, And Prevention
An important part of deciding to have surgery for a scaphoid fracture is figuring out what can happen if you don’t have surgery. This article shows you a good example of what happens if a scaphoid fracture never heals.
[Read more…] about Scaphoid Fracture Surgery – What Happens If A Scaphoid Fracture Never Heals?
Bruising is caused by bleeding underneath the skin.
It’s usually a sign of severe trauma in a young person, whose bones are harder and ligaments thicker than an older person.
In a young person, several layers of anatomy have to be damaged to see bleeding underneath the skin after a wrist injury.
For example, bleeding from a broken bone has to pass from the broken bone edge, up through the muscles or tendons, through the tendon covering (called fascia), and spread underneath the skin and fat layer.
That’s why bruising after a wrist injury is often a sign of a broken wrist.
A contusion just means an injury caused by a direct blow, or direct impact.
The blow can be from landing directly on the wrist on the ground or from another player’s pads or helmet striking the wrist.
Contusions are usually minor injuries, don’t require surgery, and heal quicker than sprains, though they can hurt a lot.
In the picture below, you can see the dark purple bruising in the wrist and hand (compare to the normal color in the fingertips) one day after this patient broke her wrist. X-rays of this wrist show a smashed radius fracture in several pieces. This is a fracture that needs surgery.
Keep in mind that she is older and her skin, bones, and ligaments are weaker, so bruising and swelling will be worse than in a young person.
School officials in Massachusetts failed to call 911 for a child’s broken arm. What type of break was this? What should parents do? How to protect your child…
Where is the most common location for arthritis in the thumb? Find out in my recent article in Health Matters, a publication of Northwest Health Systems.
“my finger doesn’t work”“my finger is bent”“my finger won’t straighten”“my finger is drooped” These are several of the most common things I hear when patients come in with a mallet finger. A mallet finger is the name for a ruptured (torn) tendon at the tip of the finger. A tendon rupture is where a tendon […]
The video below shows a patient’s thumb moving back and forth. As you’ll see, most of the range of motion is at the MP (metacarpophalangeal) joint. This is abnormal – in a normal thumb, the majority of the motion is through the CMC (carpometacarpal joint, at the base of the thumb). When the CMC joint […]
Bones in children are different from bones in adults. They break differently and they respond differently to injury. Some fractures occur both in adults and kids – some fractures occur only in children. Forearm fractures occur in both, with some important differences. This article will cover some of the basics of forearm fractures in kids. […]
The most common tumor in the finger is a ganglion cyst. A ganglion cyst is simply a fluid-filled sac. It can be visible from the outside or buried deep underneath the skin. Sometimes it causes symptoms like soreness and pain; other times patients have no idea it’s there. What is a mucous cyst? Ganglion cysts […]
