Identifying Common Sports Injuries to Fingers, Hands & Wrists: Your Treatment Options
Treatment of any sports injury may include medication, a splint, brace, “buddy-taping,” a cast, or sometimes surgery. Physical therapy is always beneficial. The friendly staff at Oriole Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Centre understand the irritation, discomfort, and frustration stemming from sports injuries. We‘re here to help: Contact us at (416) 221-0772 and our professional therapists will work to help you gain full function of your hands, wrists, fingers, and other limbs through strength building.
Injuries to Fingers
Sports injuries to fingers are extremely common, but are to be taken seriously. The scope of the injuries can range from minor to completely incapacitating, with long term consequences affecting the use of your hands, including:
• Finger or thumb sprains
• Mallet finger or deformity that is caused by damage to tendon
• Broken or dislocated finger
• Boutonniere Deformity resulting from injury to tendons (affecting straightening of finger joints)
• Trigger Finger due to misuse (resulting in pain, jerking, or snapping and finger dysfunction)
• Jersey Finger (affects the flexor tendon)
• Volar Plate injury (thick ligament joining bones of the fingers; causing ligament tear or sprain)
• Black Fingernail (bleeding under the nail)
• Cellulitis or finger felon (bacterial infections)
Hand Sports Injuries
Hand injuries may not seem as critical as damage to other limbs, but without the full function of your hands, wrists, and fingers most tasks can become nearly impossible. Your hands are crucial to many everyday tasks. Some of the most common sports injuries to hands are sprains, infections, and fractures. These include:
• Boxer fractures (affects metacarpal bones; typically caused by striking an object with closed fist)
• Metacarpal Fracture (affects the bones that form the palm of the hand)
• Hand bruising
• Rolando Fracture (affects the base of the metacarpal base in various fragments)
• Handlebar Palsy (ulnar nerve in the wrist gets compressed for an extended period)
• Dupuytren’s Contracture (irregular thickening of tissue just below the skin’s surface, often in the palm and up to the fingers)
Wrist Injury
Wrist injuries can be quite common, resulting in a gradual or acute sports wound or lasting damage. At the onset of such pain, the first principle to find relief is “P.R.I.C.E.” or protection, rest, ice, compression, and elevation. However, depending on severity, injuries may need more attention. Some wrist injuries are as follows:
• Broken, bruised or sprained wrist
• Dislocated wrist or strain
• Carpal fracture
• Scaphoid fracture (a break in one of the small wrist bones)
• Bennett fracture (affects the wrist joint, causing displacement)
• Hook of Hamate Fracture (fracture to one of eight small wrist bones)
• TFCC tear or triangular fibrocartilage complex (damage to cushioning and support of the carpal bones in the wrist; very painful)
• Smiths, Triquetrum or Bartons fractures of the wrist
• Carpal tunnel syndrome or a pinched nerve
• Wrist tendonitis, De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis or bursitis
• Ganglion cyst (growth that develops out of the wrist joint or tissues of tendon sheaths, ligaments or joint linings)
Treatment or Therapy Options
Treatment of any sports injury may include medication, a splint, brace, “buddy-taping,” a cast, or sometimes surgery. Physical therapy is always beneficial. The friendly staff at Oriole Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Centre understand the irritation, discomfort, and frustration stemming from sports injuries. We‘re here to help: Contact us at (416) 221-0772 and our professional therapists will work to help you gain full function of your hands, wrists, fingers, and other limbs through strength building.