What Is Osteaorthritis?
Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis. It can affect hands and wrists, particularly the joints at the ends of the fingers or at the base of the thumb. It can cause pain and stiffness and make it difficult to use your hands and wrists properly. Osteoarthritis can cause bony lumps to develop on the hands, particularly on the fingers.
Common Treatments for Osteoarthritis
If possible, it can help to avoid tasks that make the pain worse and put strain on your hands and wrists. Keeping your hands and wrists moving as much as possible can help ease symptoms. There are some examples of simple exercises you could do, try to do these every day.
Taking painkillers, such as paracetamol, or NSAIDs such as ibuprofen can help ease pain and help you to keep moving your hands. Capsaicin cream, which is made from extracts from chili plants, has helped some people with osteoarthritis of the hand. It can help block pain messages sent to nerves.
Other Treatment Options for Osteoarthritis
In some cases, if symptoms don’t improve then surgery might be an option. Finger joints can be fused. This can improve symptoms, but it will lead to a loss of movement. It’s also possible to have joint replacements for hand osteoarthritis. Another option could be arthroscopy, also known as key-hole surgery, to clean out a joint using a small cut, rather than open surgery.
