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Pain In Front Of Arm And At Wrist Under Thumb, Swelling And Throbbing. Any Ideas?

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Posted on Sat, 8 Sep 2012
Question: I am having (have been having for the last week) strange XXXXXXX pain (but no overally painful) in front of arm (between shoulder and crook of arm) and at my wrist under thumb where veins are and it is slightly swollen and throbs...any ideas? No numbness in hands
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Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (37 minutes later)
Hello!

If your pain spreads only to thumb, index, long and radial half of the ring finger you might be suffering from median nerve at the wrist in carpal tunnel. This pain often occurs during sleeping. The pain often is associated with paresthesia and tingling.

There is a simple test you can perform at home. Try to gently flex your wrist as much as possible, and wait for about 60 seconds. If numbness will occur this is very probable you have this disease. To verify it electromyography and nerve conduction velocity should be performed. It can be treated by simple surgery.
There is also a chance that you are suffering from veins thrombosis. This can also cause pain of your arm and forearm and it is always associated with swelling and redness of the area where it occurs. This diagnose is more urgent as it can be even life treating. It can be easily ruled out by Doppler ultrasound of veins.

Sometimes such pain can be caused by cervical part of spinal column diseases which are compressing spinal cord. It is often associated with headaches, paresthesia of whole hand and hand muscles weakness. MRI of spinal cord should be performed to rule it out.

Hope this will help.
Feel free to ask further questions.

Regards
Note: For further queries, consult a joint and bone specialist, an Orthopaedic surgeon. Book a Call now.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Shanthi.E
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Answered by
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Dr. Grzegorz Stanko

General Surgeon

Practicing since :2008

Answered : 5795 Questions

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Pain In Front Of Arm And At Wrist Under Thumb, Swelling And Throbbing. Any Ideas?

Hello!

If your pain spreads only to thumb, index, long and radial half of the ring finger you might be suffering from median nerve at the wrist in carpal tunnel. This pain often occurs during sleeping. The pain often is associated with paresthesia and tingling.

There is a simple test you can perform at home. Try to gently flex your wrist as much as possible, and wait for about 60 seconds. If numbness will occur this is very probable you have this disease. To verify it electromyography and nerve conduction velocity should be performed. It can be treated by simple surgery.
There is also a chance that you are suffering from veins thrombosis. This can also cause pain of your arm and forearm and it is always associated with swelling and redness of the area where it occurs. This diagnose is more urgent as it can be even life treating. It can be easily ruled out by Doppler ultrasound of veins.

Sometimes such pain can be caused by cervical part of spinal column diseases which are compressing spinal cord. It is often associated with headaches, paresthesia of whole hand and hand muscles weakness. MRI of spinal cord should be performed to rule it out.

Hope this will help.
Feel free to ask further questions.

Regards