Medical Services

De Quervain’s tenosynovitis is a painful disorder affecting the tendons on the thumb side of your wrist. This happens when two tendons, the abductor pollicis longus and extensor pollicis brevis, and their sheath become inflamed and swollen. The swelling narrows the fibro-osseous tunnel through which the tendons pass, causing pressure and pain with thumb and wrist motion.

The chief symptom is pain and soreness around the base of the thumb that may spread up the forearm. The pain worsens with tasks that require grabbing, pinching, twisting, or creating a fist. Other symptoms are swelling around the base of the thumb, a “catching” or “snapping” sensation with thumb movement, numbness along the thumb and index finger, and sometimes a fluid-filled cyst.

The illness is generally caused by repetitive movements of the hand and wrist, such as lifting a newborn, gardening, playing racket sports, or typing, or by chronic overuse. It is sometimes dubbed “mommy wrist” since it is common in new moms throughout late pregnancy and the postpartum period. It can also be caused by direct injury to the wrist or inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Treatment includes resting the wrist with a splint, ice, anti-inflammatory medicine, physical therapy, corticosteroid injections, and minimally invasive surgery to remove the tendon sheath in severe cases