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We find that injuries to the hand are common in athletes because the hand is characteristically in front of the athlete in most sports and frequently absorbs the initial contact. Furthermore, the hand is used in the majority of sports in one way or another. There is a tendency to minimize the severity and importance of these injuries since the hand does not bear weight, and disability of the hand usually does not totally disable the athlete. This is particularly true of the young poorly-supervised athletes who tend to return to vigorous activity with unprotected use of the extremity before adequate healing has taken place. We see many high school and college athletes in a wide array of sports whose hopes appear to be dashed of a future athletic career. Fortunately we have options for complete recovery to offer!
It is easy to see how injuries to the wrist, hand, and fingers occur. When they do occur, the areas typically injured are the collateral ligaments, as well as the carpometacarpal and metacarpophalangeal ligaments in the hand. Let’s look a little closer at the anatomy of the hand.
 Hand physiology: The hand is composed of numerous bones, muscles and ligaments that allow for a large amount of movement and dexterity. There are three major types of bones in the hand itself: phalanges, the fourteen bones in the fingers; metacarpal bones, the five bones in the middle of the hand; and carpal bones, the eight bones that create the wrist. The most common area of pain in the hand is the thumb, because of its unique role in the hand’s function. Arthritis in the thumb, as well as other phalangeal joints in the hand, can become a major cause of disability for the athlete.
Progression of hand pain: Hand pain is usually caused by loose ligaments, which, when not addressed, can turn into arthritis. Because the thumbs have to work so much harder than the fingers performing tasks such as turning a doorknob, using a screwdriver or holding something, the thumbs are usually the first part of the hand to elicit pain. However, all parts of the hand are susceptible to development of loose ligaments from a wide variety of sources, including sports injuries/trauma. Another cause of chronic hand pain that we see at Caring Medical that is frequently overlooked is referred pain, which occurs when a ligament injury or weakness in one part of the body causes pain in another part. This is especially common in contact sports where the athlete may be experiencing pain from another body part such as the elbow, shoulder, or neck. We see all sorts of athletes with hand pain, including hand ball players, tennis/racquetball players, cricket, rugby, soccer, and football players, as well as golfers, skiers, boxers, rock climbers, baseball players, and gymnasts.
What are the symptoms of hand pain?
The two joints of the thumb, the carpometacarpal and the metacarpophalangeal joints, are the most common areas in the hand to experience pain. The pain can range from an intermittent dull ache and stiffness to a more severe and constant pain. It can affect one, several or all of the joints in the hand. However, we have treated every joint in the hand and fingers. One slip up during an athletic event can lead to chronic pain in one or more joints that can completely halt the athlete’s ability to play their sport.
Caring Medical’s treatment approach to an athlete’s hand pain: Conventional medical treatments such as NSAIDs, cortisone shots, and taping/bracing may help relieve the symptoms of hand pain, but they do not address the root cause of the problem. Strengthening structural weaknesses in the hand, individual fingers, wrists or thumbs using Prolotherapy, can alleviate hand pain permanently. Prolotherapy injections are given at the bone-ligament junction and stimulate the body to repair the injured area.
If you have been side-lined with a hand injury, don’t wait for it to get better. Do something about it! Consider Prolotherapy to stimulate the healing of those injured hand joints and ligaments!
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