With the advent of the era of smart phones and electronic technology, people's dependence on electronic products is getting stronger and stronger, playing games, chatting On WeChat, online shopping, and brushing Weibo have become people's daily "compulsory courses". Gradually, many friends began to feel soreness at the base of the fingers and wrists, and the fingers lost flexibility and even stiffness, which may be tenosynovitis coming to the door.
Female and manual workers are more susceptible to tenosynovitis
What is tenosynovitis? To understand tenosynovitis, you first need to understand one structure — tendons and tendon sheaths. The relationship between the tendon sheath and the tendon is like the relationship between the knife and the sheath. The tendon sheath is the tissue that wraps around the outside of the tendon and has the effect of fixing, protecting and lubricating the tendon from friction or compression. Due to our long-term, repetitive, excessive joint activities, such as: holding children, doing housework, brushing mobile phones with thumbs, etc., tendons repeatedly rub the tendon sheath, resulting in aseptic inflammation, which is what we call tenosynovitis.
According to statistics, women account for 80% to 90% of the onset of tenosynovitis, and the main reason is related to the estrogen level of women. Of course, people who repeat a single activity for a long time are also easy to recruit, such as: middle-aged women with heavy housework, office workers who frequently use computers, young women who are pregnant, women who often hold children, and manual workers such as chefs and tailors.
Three movements can be self-tested for tenosynovitis at home
In the early stages of tenosynovitis, it generally manifests as tenderness, slight swelling and pain, and elasticity of activity, and in more severe cases, there are symptoms such as limited movement, stiffness, and induration. Three actions that can be self-tested for tenosynovitis at home:
First, the first step, the thumb is placed in the middle of the palm of the hand, with the rest of the fingers to hold the thumb; the second step, the wrist to the side of the little finger (ulnar side) gently pressed down; the third step, if the pain in the wrist is obvious, it may be radial stem wrist tenosynovitis!
Second, the first step, spread the hand, the thumb gently pulled upwards; the second step, the root of the thumb has an induration knot, and there is a feeling of tenderness, which is the symptom of tendon tenosynovitis of the flexor.
Third, the first step, the thumb bending downwards is difficult, you need to press down hard; the second step, when the thumb is stretched, it will bounce up, which is also a manifestation of tendon tenosynovitis of the flexor.
How can patients with tenosynovitis be cared for effectively?
What should I do if I have detected tenosynovitis? Tenosynovitis is relieved mainly by conservative treatment, with little regard for surgical treatment. Conservative treatment generally includes brake rest, hot compresses, external plasters, moxibustion treatments, etc.
1. Since the brake rest is a lesion caused by excessive activity, the first thing is to control the activity of the affected area, mainly rest, and if necessary, you can wear a wrist protector.
It should be noted that the method circulated on the Internet to exercise the affected area through a leather band to help restore tenosynovitis is actually not suitable for everyone. The "budding period" of tenosynovitis, that is, only some pain when self-testing, and there is no induration and bouncing stage, can be rehabilitated through a small amount of training; otherwise, it may be heavier and heavier. Therefore, the best treatment for tenosynovitis is still brake rest.
2. Hot compresses on the affected areas such as hot towels, moxibustion, and warm babies at home, as long as the local heat treatment is appropriate, it will help the recovery of tenosynovitis.
3. Take tenosynovitis at the distal end of the radius as an example, and rub the proximal and distal ends of the affected area:
a． Press laterally to center on the tendon (raise your finger so you can see the tendon), avoid the affected area, push the tendon laterally at both the proximal and distal ends, and gently push and knead for two minutes.
b． Push and rub longitudinally along the tendons, do not work too hard when passing through the affected area, as long as the degree of local skin redness is better, it is also a two-minute massage.
It should be noted that if the tendon sheath is rubbed for a long time, the tendon is locally thickened, and then the slippage of the tendon in the tendon sheath is affected, resulting in severe restriction of joint activity, surgery is still required.
4. If the symptoms are more severe, even if the wrist is rested, the local pain is still obvious, and some plasters with analgesic effect can be applied or applied locally to alleviate the symptoms of pain and discomfort.
(Text: Liu Shaofan, Chief Chinese Medicine Physician, Department of Rehabilitation, Chongqing Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine)
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