What disease is the lump on the wrist?

The wrist is a relatively fragile part of the human body, and the structure of the wrist is also relatively complex. In daily life, a blister on the wrist may be caused by a ganglion cyst, which is a tissue disease of the wrist joint. It is common in the wrist and foot of the human body. Adolescents have a higher incidence of the disease, which can easily cause pain in the area and affect normal life and requires treatment.

Long wrist bag

The lump on the wrist is a ganglion cyst, which is a cystic tumor that occurs in the tendon sheath of the joint. It is a disease caused by the degeneration of the connective tissue around the joint capsule. It contains colorless, transparent, orange or light yellow thick mucus, and often occurs on the back of the wrist and the back of the foot. Most patients are young and middle-aged, and more often women.

The main clinical features are a hemispherical protrusion superficial under the skin, which is soft and movable and often occurs in the center of the wrist. A slowly developing cystic mass on the dorsum of the wrist or foot that is spherical in shape, with a smooth surface, clear boundaries, soft texture, and a sense of fluctuation. It has no obvious subjective symptoms or may cause slight soreness. When the cyst is filled with fluid, the cyst wall becomes hard and locally tender. When touched, the subcutaneous tissue feels full and has a fluctuating cystic feeling, accompanied by wrist weakness, discomfort or pain, mostly soreness or radiating pain, and may have certain functional impairment.

Clinical manifestations

1. General symptoms

Ganglion cysts can occur at any age, but are more common in young and middle-aged people, and more common in women than in men. The cysts are slow growing, round, and usually no larger than 2 cm in diameter. There are also sudden discoverers. A few may disappear on their own or grow again. In some cases, apart from local swelling, there is no conscious discomfort and sometimes mild tenderness. In most cases, there is local soreness or discomfort, which affects activities. The size of the cyst has no direct relationship with the severity of the symptoms, but is related to the tension of the cyst. The greater the tension, the harder the tumor and the more obvious the pain.

2. Local symptoms

During the examination, a round lump with a smooth appearance and clear boundaries can be felt. The surface skin can be pushed, there is no adhesion, and there is soreness or pain when pressed. Most cysts have high tension and are firm lumps, while a few are soft but all have a cystic feeling. The cyst has a fixed base and little movement.

(1) Ganglion cysts of the wrist mostly occur on the dorsal side of the wrist, with a few occurring on the palm side. The most common site is the dorsal joint capsule of the wrist joint on the radial side of the common extensor tendon, followed by the radial flexor carpi tendon and the abductor pollicis longus tendon. Cysts may also develop in the flexor tendon sheath within the carpal tunnel, compressing the median nerve and inducing carpal tunnel syndrome. A few ganglion cysts may occur on the flexor tendon sheath of the fingers beyond the metacarpophalangeal joint. They are the size of a grain of rice and as hard as cartilage.

(2) Ganglion cysts of the foot and ankle are most common in the dorsalis pedis, which usually originate from the tendon sheath of the extensor digitorum longus tendon lateral to the dorsalis pedis artery. Ganglion cysts in the tarsal tunnel can compress the tibial nerve and are one of the causes of tarsal tunnel syndrome.

treat

A small number of ganglion cysts may resolve on their own, but some patients still experience recurrent attacks after multiple treatments.

1. Non-surgical treatment

Although the recurrence rate of conservative treatment of ganglion cysts is high, this method is the least invasive and easily accepted by patients, and can be used as the preferred method clinically. Ganglion cysts can be ruptured by squeezing and gradually absorbed on their own, but they may recur after treatment. Those that are connected to the joint cavity are not easy to rupture. The cyst fluid can be extracted by puncture, and then pressure and massage can be applied, or adrenal cortical hormone or hyaluronidase can be injected after the cyst fluid is extracted, and local pressure bandage can be applied for 2 days, which has a certain therapeutic effect.

2. Surgical treatment

When other treatment methods are ineffective, ganglion cysts can be surgically removed. After surgery, strenuous activity of the affected joint should be avoided to prevent recurrence.