Symptoms

What symptoms does a hand fracture cause?

The sequence of sudden pain localized to the hand immediately following a traumatic incident is the hallmark of hand fractures. The affected bone is often very tender and moving the hand or a particular digit makes the pain worse. The hand or digit swells and soon shows bruising. It is not unusual for deformity at the fracture site to be evident as an abnormal shape or lump in the hand. The way that the hand closes or forms a fist may also be affected.

Following treatment most of these symptoms continue to be troublesome for some weeks. Much of the pain is from injury to muscles and bleeding into the tissues. This resolves slowly and stays painful and tender while it does so. Bruising and swelling is also very slow to go down. Movement of the fingers can be painful because of bleeding into the tendon sheaths, However, early movement of the fingers and thumb are very important for gaining normal function again so you may be asked to move them even though it hurts.