Conditions & Injuries

A cut flexor tendon does not heal on its own — the ends pull apart. The two-finger test that finds it, what the zones mean, and the repair window measured in days.

Ganglions in the palm behave nothing like the ones on the wrist. How to tell a seed ganglion from a trigger finger nodule, and when a lump in the hand is worth doing something about.

Hand osteoarthritis attacks three specific joints, not the whole hand. Which ones, why using your hands isn’t the cause, and the window where treatment still changes things.

Swelling after a hand injury decides how stiff the hand ends up. Why it pushes the hand into the worst position, what the safe position is, and the three-week window.

Cold, discoloured ring and little fingers in one hand — with a normal thumb — in someone who uses their palm as a hammer. Why it is arterial, and what it is mistaken for.

Years of vibrating tools damage the nerves and vessels of the hand permanently. The two strands, how it is staged, and why stopping exposure is the only treatment that works.

Escalating pain far worse than the injury, with a tense forearm and agony on straightening the fingers, is compartment syndrome until proven otherwise. The signs, and the six-hour window.

Numbness over the back of the thumb with completely normal strength points at Wartenberg’s syndrome. Where the nerve gets pinched, what it is mistaken for, and why the fix is often a watch strap.

A quarter of perilunate dislocations are missed at the first visit because the front-on X-ray looks normal. What the lateral view shows, and why the first week decides the wrist.

A small firm bump near the fingernail with a groove down the nail is a mucous cyst — a ganglion driven by arthritis in the joint beneath. Why draining it fails, and when to act.