Table of Content

• 5 Major Symptoms of a Sprained Hand

• 5 Major Symptoms of a Fractured Hand

• Top 3 Effective Treatment to cure Fractured Hand

• 5 Major Consequences if you don’t get proper Treatment?

Introduction

• Given the fact that you use your hands for almost all the tasks, it is expected that you might face injuries related to them. As one of the most important organs in our body, injuries related to hands can result in severe consequences. Yet you often ignore them by saying it can be cured by itself, there is no need for treatment, and it is a common pain that goes away with time. 

• But that is not the explanation you would give to yourself when your health is at risk. You should have to give yourself proper treatment whenever injuries like the most common one, sprained hand, or the most serious one, fractured hand, occur. 

Before we talk about hand injuries, let’s first understand how serious injuries such as fractures can happen. 

It can happen by external forces like:

1. Accidents

2. Lifting a heavy object

3. Falling of a heavy object to our hand

4. Twisting of hand, etc.

• Sometimes, the fractured hand gets confused with the sprained hand when you don't know whether the pain itself can go, or you just have to get proper treatment. They seem to be similar, but there is a lot of difference between them. 

• So, to understand that, you must know the differences between the symptoms of a fractured hand and a sprained one. 

1. Pain

2. Swelling may happen

3. Redness

4. The pain can be gone within an hour just by a simple massaging with a hot bag or oil.

5. They can happen due to internal force, so it's normal, and it can go away by itself by simply resting.

5 Major Symptoms of a Fractured Hand

1. Unbearable pain

2. Swelling and feeling hotness in that area

3. Unable to move

4. An unusual shape-changing of your hand can happen.

5. The pain would not be relieved by itself

• When you feel these symptoms after getting a hand injury, then it might be a strong possibility that you may have broken your hand, and you need to get proper and prescribed treatment.

• It can be easily treatable if you follow the doctor's prescription, but what can you possibly do when you feel unbearable pain.

• The immediate actions you could take to relieve this pain at your home are:

1. Avoid any movement of your hand and carefully just be at one place

2. Apply some ice on it. It will temporarily relieve your pain and gently rub ice on broken hand

3. Cover your hand with some heavy cloth so that it gives you some warmness and adherence

• But these are not for permanent cure, although they provide some soothing feeling to your unbearable pain. You need to go to see the doctor and take proper check-ups and medications.

• A specialist or orthopedic doctor can treat you well. He will diagnose your injury and will prescribe you a suitable treatment according to your condition. The doctor will check your condition by doing an X-Ray of your broken hand. In X-Rays, they see whether your wrist bones (carpals) or palm bone (metacarpals), and in some cases, finger bones (phalanges) are damaged. The most common type of hand fracture is metacarpals or palm bone damage.

Top 3 Effective Treatment to cure Fractured Hand

Orthopedic will suggest you one of these treatments based on your condition:-

1. Casting and Bracing

• This is the most common treatment. In this treatment, you’ll wear a cast or braces according to your situation. And it is the most effective treatment when you talk about wrist bone or palm bone injury.

• During this treatment, you need to wear a cast or braces for about a month with little movement of your hand. You should be careful while doing any work that involves your hand.

• Casting or Bracing will heal your bones by joining them slowly. 

2. Medication for Pain

This is an important one as it relaxes your muscles and gives the bone some time to heal itself. But you should take painkillers as prescribed by any orthopedic. And it happens that you will feel sleepy after taking medicines, but it will give your bones the rest that it wants. 

3. Surgical Treatment

• This is a rare one in the case of a fractured hand. But yes, it might be one of the treatments when the condition is critical. When the bones do not get healed by themselves, the doctor will suggest you go for surgery. But you need to give extra care and take precautions after hand surgery. 

• After taking any one of the treatments, you need to do regular follow-ups with your orthopedic as they can say whether your condition is improving or not. It takes almost three weeks to recover your bones.

5 Major Consequences if you don’t get proper Treatment?

A fractured hand needs special care. If you ignore them, you may face its consequences. The risks you might face related to hand fracture are:-

1. Dislocation of Bones: Lack of proper treatment can result in the dislocation of bones of your hand. In most cases, permanent dislocation means it misshapes your normal orientation of hand bones. In the worst case, the abnormality can be visible just by looking at the hands.

2. Stiffness in Hands: It's a bit normal, hence quite a complicated situation where you find your hand stiff enough not to do regular daily routine work. 

3. Non-Movable Joints: They are as risky as stiff hands. In this, you can't do anything with your hand, and when you try to do it, there is lots of pain and suffering you might face. You should not be avoiding this risk as well. 

4. Last Longer Pain: As you know, the broken bone gives you unbearable pain which you can’t bear for a longer time. If you don’t get treated soon, the pain-causing problem will last longer, and you will not be able to do anything with your painful hand.

5. Swelling of hands: It is one of the cases when your hand becomes swollen and red, resulting in intolerable pain that may last longer. It can become problematic for many years.

• Therefore, you should not risk your health for any reason. You don't have to bear pain by avoiding proper treatment to heal you faster without any suffering. After the proper treatment, the doctor will suggest some precautions that you have to take, as, without them, you don't get healed. 

• You just need to take proper care of your hand after getting treatment because a doctor can’t do anything unless and until you don’t take care of yourself. When it comes to health, you should not ignore the right things that the doctor suggests to you. 

Word of Wisdom

• Getting treatment for your fractured hand is of utmost importance as it not only avoids any future risk but also gets you healed as soon as possible. You should not be avoiding your health over anything. It is a must that when you face any accident or any injury, you must check whether this is a big deal or not. 

• Follow-ups are necessary after an injury. Most people ignore them. They just think that after one visit there is no need to go to see the doctor, but it's not true; you should go and give your follow-ups to your doctor and tell them about how you are feeling, how is the treatment working for you? It is essential to get in touch with your doctor for routine check-ups.

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  References

• National Institute of Health

• OrthoInfo