3 step test for thumb tendonitis or de quervain’s tendonitis

by Tom Beartoes

Our hands are an important to almost any of our daily activities. If we are to injure our hands, wrist or even our fingers can impact how we function normally while playing, at work, at home and in the sport that we do.

Health injuries such as thumb tendonitis and De Quervain’s tendonitis can impact how we do these things also. These can occur by a number of factors.

What is Tendonitis of the Thumb

First let’s learn some information about what tendonitis in the thumb is. This is a condition that happens when there is irritation or swelling of the tendons that are found in the hand along the thumb side of the wrist.

What happens is the irritation that you have causes the compartment that the tendon runs in to swell. The shape of the compartment changes. The tendon can’t move as it should in this compartment. Pain and tenderness occurs along the thumb side of the wrist. This pain can be felt if you go to grasp something, make a fist or by turning the wrist.

Thumb tendonitis and a repetitive motion injury

Tasks that require some type of repetitive movements can turn out to be a big problem. You can end up with many different types of problems. Some of them are having severe pain in the hand, you can injure the nerves that run to the hand and wrist (carpal tunnel syndrome). You may even start to have your fingers start to lock or even click (trigger finger) and you can also have severe pain in the thumb.

Thumb Tendonitis, the signs and symptoms

Pain on the thumb side of the wrist is the main symptom. This pain may appear gradually or even suddenly. This may even seem like an arthritic pain. The pain is felt in the wrist, but can travel up the forearm.

There are many symptoms that can alert you that there is something going wrong. The pain will typically be on the thumb side of the wrist. When you move the hand or twist the wrist or sometimes when you go to grab something the pain can be severe. When this problems starts to get really bad, your thumb and or fingers may start to snap or catch. When you are having numbness on the back side of the thumb or the index finger this is a very good sign that something is very wrong and you are pinching a nerve.

How can I treat this?

One of the initial treatments is a thumb splint or brace to help support the thumb. Resting and some type of anti-inflammatory medication can be helpful. Icing the effective area can decrease the inflammation.

An effective treatment of De Quervain’s tendonitis or tendinitis in thumb is that your doctor may prescribe is a cortisone injection around the tendon to help decrease the swelling and provide pain relief.

The last straw if the other treatments don’t provide relief is surgery. You would do this if the pain is constant or constantly recurring. Surgical treatments do work well and can cure the problem. You are in and out, day surgery and then you wear a splint for several day to brace the treated area or until the stitches are removed.

Thumb tendonitis and the way to tell if you are suffering

The Finkelstein test can be performed to tell if you have thumb tendonitis or Dequervain’s tendonitis. The following is the procedure to check for these problems.

* Make a fist with the fingers over the thumb.

* The wrist is then bent in the direction of the little finger.

* This test is and can be quite painful if the person is suffering from tendonitis of the thumb. You will find tenderness directly over the tendons on the thumb side of the wrist when you touch them and this is very common.

2 steps and you will know if you have or possibly have thumb tendonitis.

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Here is a quick way of finding out if you have Thumb Tendonitis but you require more information on this and DeQuervain’s Tendonitis and our website will provide this.