Crushing injuries, accidents, direct blows, and other traumatic events can often lead to broken fingers, thumb or a few bones in your hand. Patients with osteoporosis are more vulnerable to bone breaks, including hand fractures treatment.
It is extremely important to see Dr. Pournaras as soon as possible if you think you have a broken hand.
Delaying necessary treatment could result in decreased range of motion, reduced grip strength, and poor healing.
In general, the symptoms of hand fractures include pain, swelling, a misshapen or deformed looking finger, thumb or habd, limited or inability to move the above and / or numbness. Most of the time, there are many non- surgical treatment options, but sometimes surgery may be required to align and secure bones if the injury is severe.
Our patients who play sports such as hockey, football, baseball are at a higher risk of a broken hand. Treating a broken hand or fingers as soon as possible is very important because if not treated in time, your bones might not heal in proper alignment, which long term, might affect your ability to do everyday things, such as writing, typing or buttoning your shirt. Early treatment will also help minimize your pain and stiffness.
Contact us today if you suspect you have broken your hand or fingers. We will also assess the health of the surrounding tissue around your injury, such as the muscles, tendons, pulleys, volar plate and ligaments. Dr. Pournaras and his staff use the latest technology and techniques to help your hand heal. Some of the finger/hand fractures treatment include:
Splinting – A custom splint is made for your injured hand / finger, to allow the best healing and ensure the bones re-attach in the correct position. A splint or brace is the most common hand fractures treatment .
We Encourage Passive Exercises – Small maintained movement of all the non-affected joints to help regain complete mobility.
Active Exercises –Isometric, Eccentric and concentric contractions in a controlled loading program to regain and strengthen the muscles. Avoiding stiffness from a broken finger or hand fracture.
Tendon Gliding Techniques – To recover the slide of the tendon along it’s axis through it’s sheath. This treatment is crucial after a broken finger to restore your grip strength.
Callus Tissue Formation To guide and prevent any abnormal bone formation. Follow up X-rays are necessary after you have completed your hand fracture treatment program.
Sensory Retraining Many fractured fingers need to involve the treatment of nerve re-training and pain modulation to recondition the nerve endings.
Look for symptoms, if you have a broken finger that include swelling, stiffness, and bruising. Within several minutes of your injury, your finger / hand may experience severe inflammation. Bruising and the inability to move or bend the finger often follows. Numbness is also a common symptom of a break.
Injuring your fingers is very common. Generally minor breaks are called hairline fractures. They are small cracks on the edges of the bone. Almost like an egg shell being cracked.
Mild Symptoms:
When your bone is broken completely and has moved, shifted or turned, and the two bones have not separated too far apart. In most cases these bone breaks can heal with proper treament. In the worst case senerio, the bone segments are displaced, yet the fragments are stable enough to be safely treated without surgery.
Even if you do not feel extreme pain, this doesn’t mean that the fracture doesn’t require medical attention.
Moderate Symptoms:
When your fingers or hand is completely broken through and the loose pieces of bone shift away from each other far apart. In this case, your injury will not not heal by itself.
The irregular shape of your finger will be very obvious. In this case, you should seek emergency medical care as soon as possible.
With a severe fracture, you can experience nerve pain.
Severe symptoms combined with possible nerve damage:
Treatments: How To Treat A Broken Hand
Many hand fractures will not require surgery. There are many treatment options to heal broken fingers, broken metacarpals, and other hand injuries, including splints and braces that are used to immobilize the injured bones. In some cases, patients may need to wear larger casts to immobilize their entire hand or wrist. The purpose of the splints and casts is to hold the bones in place, allowing the area to heal, while also minimizing the risk of reinjury during your recovery process.
If misalignment occurs, you may need to have the injuried area manually repositioned. Example, your finger before using a splint or cast to treat.
In the case of severe hand injuries, Dr. Pournaras will advise you if surgery is needed.
Before hand fractures treatment, a local or general anesthesia may be used depending on the specific surgery. Broken hand surgery may involve using small pins and wires to hold the fractured bones in place.
In some cases, metal plates and screws may be used to ensure the bones of your hand are properly aligned.
If any of the bones shattered, it is usually necessary to use a bone graft transplant taken from another part of your body. A bone graft may also be used to treat a bone that has not healed properly after a previous injury or surgery.
For over 30 years, Virginia Board Certified Physician, Dr. Stephen W. Pournaras, Jr. has provided excellent healthcare and treatment for his patients. As a multi-specialty orthopedic practice, offering the best for you medically to treat, heal and lead you to optimum recovery. We are dedicated to using state-of-the-art technology while building nurturing relationships with each of our patients.
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