Lally, MD, a rheumatologist at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. Stiffness with immobility is characteristic of rheumatoid arthritis in the hands as well, says Lindsay S. Swelling tends to be symmetrical, which means it occurs in the same joints on both right and left hands. When your hands are affected by rheumatoid arthritis, you may experience swelling around the affected joint, which leads to pain or tenderness. What Does Rheumatoid Arthritis in the Hands Feel Like?
In fact, one study in the Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine that included 200 patients with rheumatoid arthritis found that 94 percent had at least one hand or wrist symptom, and 67 percent had at least one related impairment, mostly from the earliest stages onward. Albayda, who also serves as the Director of the Musculoskeletal Ultrasound and Injection Clinic at Johns Hopkins. RA tends to involve the small joints of the hands and feet early on in the disease process, adds Dr. (It is more often involved in other types of arthritis such as osteoarthritis or psoriatic arthritis.) In the wrist, RA often affects the joint between the two bones of the forearm, the radius and ulna. The first knuckle at the top of the finger closest to the nails - the DIP, or distal interphalangeal joint - is generally spared in RA. When RA strikes the hand, it is most common in the wrist and finger knuckles - more specifically the MCP (metacarpophalangeal) joint, or the large knuckle where the fingers and thumb meet the hand, and the PIP (proximal interphalangeal) joint, or middle knuckle, explains Jemima Albayda, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore. Ligaments are connective tissues that join two bones tendons are connective issues that join muscle to bone. The inflammation may also weaken and damage tendons. The swollen tissue may stretch the surrounding ligaments, resulting in deformity and instability, according to the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. That extra fluid - along with the inflammatory chemicals released by the immune system - causes swelling, damages cartilage, and softens the bone within the joint. When you have rheumatoid arthritis, the synovium becomes inflamed, thickens, and produces an excess of joint fluid. Many joints are covered with a lining called the synovium, which lubricates the joint so it moves more easily. How Rheumatoid Arthritis Affects Your Hands Read more here about common rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. Research suggests an estimated 90 percent of people will RA experience pain, stiffness, or swelling in joints in their hand, and often results in problems performing daily activities. Though RA can affect joints and organs all over the body, it often strikes in smaller joints first - particularly those in your hand and wrist, as well as ones in your feet.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory disease in which your immune system mistakenly attacks the lining of the membrane that surrounds your joints. All of this complexity also makes the hand a prime target for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Made up of the wrist, palm, and fingers, each hand contains 27 small joints, the same number of bones, and a whole lot of muscles, tendons, and ligaments. It’s designed to give powerful grip, lift heavy objects, and manipulate small ones (like threading a fine string through a tiny needle eye). Your hand is one of the most complex structures in the human body.