Causes of Hand conditions

Hand conditions Causes: Book Excerpts

• Differential Diagnosis - Hand and Foot Rashes
• Differential Diagnosis - Wrist & Hand Pain/Swelling
• Differential Diagnosis - Hand & Foot Rashes
• Differential Overview - Wrist/Hand Pain

Related information on causes of Hand conditions:

As with all medical conditions, there may be many causal factors. Further relevant information on causes of Hand conditions may be found in:

• Hidden causes of Hand conditions

Causes of Hand conditions: Online Medical Books

16 MEDICAL BOOKS ONLINE! Review excerpts from medical books online, free, without registration, for more information about the causes of Hand conditions.

Hand and Foot Rashes: Differential Diagnosis
(In a Page: Signs and Symptoms)

• Dyshidrotic eczema (pompholyx)
  –Very common idiopathic skin disease
  –Affects one or both hands and/or feet in the thenar eminence, palms and/or soles, and sides of fingers and toes
  –Causes itching, scaling, and erythema, and minute vesicles and painful fissures
  –Usually chronic and intermittent, and often exquisitely pruritic

• Irritant or allergic hand eczema
  –Very common
  –Difficult to distinguish from dyshidrosis because both are vesicular and very itchy
  –Flares occur during work/hobbies, with improvement on vacation when away from the irritant or allergen
• Tinea manus (hand) and tinea pedis (foot)
  –Presents as itchy, diffuse, light scale, and/or maceration; prominent on palmar, plantar (moccasin distribution), and interdigital surfaces
  –Erythema is rarely present
  –Often “two hands and one foot” or “two feet and one hand” are affected
• Scabies
  –Presents as short (a few millimeters), linear burrows and vesicles on the hands and feet (web spaces), belt region, and/or intertriginous spaces
  –Intensely pruritic, especially at night
  –Often many members of the household unit affected
  –Definitive diagnosis made by visualizing the scabies mite in a skin scraping

• Psoriasis
  –Often affects the hands and/or feet
  –Well-demarcated, erythematous plaques
  with adherent scale, or can present as a focal or diffuse pustular eruption
  –Look for associated nail dystrophy or other skin involvement

• Pityriasis rubra pilaris
  –Well-demarcated bright salmon or red plaques on the palms or soles

• Keratoderma
  –Focal or diffuse thickening of the skin of the palms or soles

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: In a Page: Signs and Symptoms, 2004

Wrist & Hand Pain/Swelling: Differential Diagnosis
(In a Page: Signs and Symptoms)

• Carpal tunnel syndrome
  –Most common cause of significant wrist discomfort and morbidity
  –Associated with repetitive use activities (e.g., typing)
  –Pain and numbness symptoms result from entrapment of the median nerve under the transverse ligament
• Overuse injury
• Osteoarthritis
• Tenosynovitis (DeQuervain's) of the radial wrist
  –Results from inflammation of the tendon sheaths of the extensor pollicis brevis and abductor pollis longus
  • Ganglion cysts
    –Common growths of tendons and ligaments in the wrist area occurring on both the dorsal and ventral surface
    –They are compressible, round, often tender, and mobile
  • Trauma
    –The most common mechanism of injury is a fall on the outstretched hand
    –The most commonly fractured carpal bone is the scaphoid
    –Other mechanisms include direct blows, crush injuries, fall on an angulated wrist, and severe twisting motions
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Compartment syndrome
  • Chest or shoulder masses, resulting in compression of lymphatic or venous systems
  • Venous thrombosis of the subclavian or distal veins
  • Flaccid paralysis following a CVA
  • Angioedema secondary to hymenoptera sting
  • Rheumatologic disease
  • Peripheral neuropathy
  • Insect or animal bite/sting
  • Infection (e.g., staphylococcus aureus, streptococci)

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: In a Page: Signs and Symptoms, 2004

Hand & Foot Rashes: Differential Diagnosis
(In A Page: Pediatric Signs and Symptoms)

Infectious

• Enterovirus infection (hand-foot-and-mouth disease, Coxsakie virus, other nonpolio enteroviruses)
• Kawasaki disease (one of the five criteria)
• Scabies
• Tinea
• Candidal skin infection
• Ricketsial rash: Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), murine typhus
• Mononucleosis (EBV)
• Measles: Atypical forms start on hands/feet
• Scarlet fever, post-streptococcal infection desquamation rash
• Infectious endocarditis: Janeway lesions, Osler nodules
• Spirochete infection: Secondary syphilis, Lyme disease (acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans)
• Congenital toxoplasmosis
• Rat-bite fever (Streptobacillus moniliformis, Spirillum minus)
  Immune-mediated
  • Urticaria: Hands and feet involved in 85% of the cases
  • Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
  • Systemic lupus erythematosus
  • Raynaud phenomenon (acrocyanosis)
  • Acute graft-vs-host disease
    Skin disorders
  • Atopic dermatitis (infantile)
  • Dyshydrotic eczema, pompholyx
  • Chronic allergic contact dermatitis
  • Psoriasis
  • Lichen simplex
  • Papillon-Lefèvre syndrome
  • Olmsted syndrome
  • Acrodermatitis enteropathica (zinc deficiency) can be presenting sign of cystic fibrosis
  • Toxic shock syndrome: Desquamation during the recovery phase; major criteria for staphyloccocal TSS
  • Drugs: Ampicillin, especially in patients with infectious mononucleosis
  • Chronic liver disease: Cirrhosis, hepatoma
  • Metabolic disease: Gangliosidosis
  • Malignancy: Acute leukemia, lymphoma

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: In A Page: Pediatric Signs and Symptoms, 2007

Wrist/Hand Pain: Differential Overview
(Field Guide to Bedside Diagnosis)

Phenomena

❑ Wrist sprain

❑ Paronychia

❑ Ganglion cyst

❑ Carpal tunnel syndrome

❑ Ulnar neuropathy

❑ Trigger finger

❑ Mallet finger

❑ Digital ganglion

❑ Dupuytren contracture

❑ De Quervain tenosynovitis

❑ Colle fracture

❑ Navicular fracture

❑ Metacarpal fracture

❑ Felon

❑ Bennet fracture

❑ Smith fracture

❑ Flexor tendon rupture

❑ Reflex sympathetic dystrophy

❑ Lunate dislocation

Hands in Arthritis

❑ Osteoarthritis

❑ Rheumatoid arthritis

❑ Gout

❑ Systemic lupus erythematosus

❑ Psoriatic arthritis

❑ Scleroderma

❑ Gonococcal arthritis

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: Field Guide to Bedside Diagnosis, 2007

 » Next page: Symptoms of Hand conditions

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