History: 37 yo male OMPT, uses his hands all day, regularly lifts his 3 beautiful daughters, works out 3-4 days/week. The onset was insidious, worsened with grasping and lifting. Symptoms were intermittent and rated 1-3/10. All upper body workouts were stopped for the first week, however work and lifting daughters were not able to be stopped. The symptoms were not improved after the first week. A standard wrist splint, but without thumb immobilizer was worn for 5 days of the next week. This actually worsened the swelling, caused ulnar paraesthesia, and increased the wrist pain to 5-6/10 with movement/activity. Pain now 8-9/10 at worst.
Objective:
- initially minimal edema progressed to moderate edema around right anatomical snuffbox (to the point where it became quite convex as opposed to concave
- All wrist ROM WNL except ulnar deviation, with pain during movement
- Severe pain up to 8-9/10 with Finkelstein's test
- Forearm, elbow WNL, shoulder grossly limited bilaterally in IR (normal for this patient), cervical ROM WNL in all planes
- Neurodynamic testing WNL for median, radial, ulnar nerve
- Finkelstein's test oddly more painful with elbow flexion rather than neurally loaded elbow extension
Treatment:
- First 2-3 weeks focused on treatment of the neural container. IASTM to the radial bony contours posteriorly > anteriorly, lateral upper arm, lightly around the snuffbox, upper trap, levator scapula
- JM to the cervical spine where limited, C7-T1, C5-6, T4
- radial neurodynamics eventually used as a treatment because Sx, function, and pain worsened over 3 weeks and neurodynamic mobility was limited for radial nerve
- self Tx was self neurodynamic mobility, and light graded movement within the pain free range
All treatments improved Finkelstein's ROM, but not pain. The ROM improvements were transient despite extreme compliance with mobility exercises. Swelling remained the same. After 3-4 weeks of rest, manual treatment to EVERY area that could be contributing to this condition, the PT decided to do the unthinkable (for him). He decided to have a cortisone injection (which was surprisingly barely felt at all). The next day pain was 50% reduced. After 1.5 weeks, all of the swelling was gone, there was only end range mild pain with Finkelstein's and all ADLs were painfree.
My partner stated it was scandalous for me to go to the physiatrist for an injection. This solution would be the same I would recommend to any patient who was not responding to mechanical and educational treatments. I had started to even catastrophize somewhat as it was really affected my work, I was unable to do a lot of manual treatments, and I had a hard time carrying my kids. Three weeks later, I am totally pain free, back to working out, with the exception of kettlebell snatches, which I think may have caused it on my right (non-dominant) hand.
Discussion:
Trust me, my partner and I tried everything that we thought a patient who presents with this mechanically could respond to. We tried treating the neural container, treating the cervical spine, rest, repeated ice, joint mobs/manip to every upper half of the body restrictions we could find. EVERYTHING was transient to no improvement. For whatever reason, I had out of control chemical irritation that was fast becoming very irritating at how it affected my work and home life. I also felt like a slob for not being able to work out regularly. Sometimes a chemical problem requires a chemical solution. That's the moral of my current story.
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