What Causes Redness And Swelling On The Hand?

Posted on Sat, 26 Nov 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 26 Nov 2016 Answered on

Fri, 23 Dec 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : I was pricked by a Robellini Palm on 10/31/16. After a couple of days I went to an emergency clinic and they gave me a antibiotic that I finished. After about a week after the original incident I could not stand the pain, redness, and swollen hand I had, so I went to the emergency room. They took an x-ray and stated it looked like arthritis in my hand, and to take Aleive. It has been a month now and the hand it is still very swollen and it is hard to use my fingres at times. What do I do?

Answered by Dr. Dr. Praveen Tayal (14 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Can be infection or arthritis.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for posting your query.
The pain, redness and swelling in the hand that you have can be due to arthritis or due to a local infection. You need few investigations like-
1. Serum calcium levels.
2. Serum Uric acid levels.
3. RA factor
4. ESR and CRP
5. Serum Creatinine
6. X-ray of affected hand.
Till then taking mild pain killer and doing a hot compress will help.
I hope this answers your query.
In case you have additional questions or doubts, you can forward them to me, and I shall be glad to help you out.
Wishing you good health.
Regards.
Dr. Praveen Tayal.
For future query, you can directly approach me through my profile URL http://bit.ly/Dr-Praveen-Tayal

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar