Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery, explained by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Leonard Marchinski

WYOMISSING, Pa. - March 27, 2019 - PRLog -- "Hand and upper extremity" includes the functionality of different body parts from your hand to shoulder such as joints, bones, ligaments, blood vessels, tendons, soft tissues, and various nerves. These regions of your hand are prone to get affected more than any other part of your body as they are heavily exposed to external factors on a daily basis, for and during the performance of many day-to-day chores. Hence, your hand can be adversely affected due to multiple reasons that can cause severe pain in your body. If not treated by an orthopedic doctor, your hand can ultimately stop functioning.

Dr. Leonard J. Marchinski is providing his thoughts on this subject in a new article. The complete article will be available on Dr. Marchinski's blog at https://leonardmarchinskimd.wordpress.com/ To understand the causes and symptoms of hand and upper extremity issues, as well as the effects and treatments, keep on reading.

Tingling in the hands. This is a common symptom that can get worse to the extent that you may end up losing sleep, resulting in insomnia. It often begins slowly and temporarily which is why you may ignore it as a harmless feeling. The reason why your hands may tingle is because of the pressure generated on your nerves due to some severe nerve injury, stress injury, toxic intake, viral or bacterial infection, and diabetes. In some cases, tingling in hands can be extreme, episodic, or chronic. Along with tingling, your hands can be itchy and numb as well.

Numbness of your hands is often accompanied by tingling and itchiness. Many consider it as a result of CTS – carpal tunnel syndrome – a compression of a median nerve in your wrist, where it passes through a tunnel. While this may be true for some cases, not every other person with numb hands may have CTS. Many other reasons can contribute to numb hands as well. For instance, numb hands can be a result of a compressed nerve due to compression neuropathy. Muscles that are part of the compressed nerve can become weak and twitchy. Another common reason for your numb hands could be an injury, compromised blood vessels, thickened tendons or connective tissues, or ganglion cysts.

Some other reasons that may cause numbness in your hand are as follows:

* Toxic metal exposure
* Brachial plexus injury
* Amyloidosis
* AIDS
* Raynaud's disease
* Side effects of chemotherapy
* Lyme disease
* Peripheral neuropathy
* Stroke
* Vitamin deficiency
* Vasculitis

If you are suffering from arthritis, then it can give rise to bone spurs which may cause pressure on your hand nerves. This may further result in numbness or tickling in your hands and other parts of your body such as wrists and elbows.

You may not know it, but the nerves in your hands and forearms have roots in your neck. If the pressure is produced on the nerves of your neck, the pain can shoot all the way through your hand, wrist, and shoulder.

Several diseases, tumors, infections, and abnormalities related to the spinal cord can cause pressure on the spinal cord and may result in pain in your hand. Decreased reflexes in your arm and forearm may also be caused due to a high-level pressure in your neck nerves. At times, a nerve may be susceptible to pressure in one or multiple parts of the body. Odds are that a nerve is compressed in your neck, which may further affect your hand or arm. This condition is known as "double crush". When one part of the body suffers from pressure, usually other parts of the body become more susceptible to pressure as well. Therefore, pressure on your neck can easily spike pressure in your hands and cause them to become numb.

*** Dr. Leonard J Marchinski is a medical doctor in Pennsylvania, focusing on orthopedic surgery.

Website: https://leonardmarchinskimd.com/
Blog: https://leonardmarchinskimd.wordpress.com/