Accidents occur in our life as an uninvited incident which cannot be predicted or stopped by anyone. However, it is always a better option to get aware of the treatments and stay in a precaution line. Even in such cases, people may end up with some accidents which makes them away to great pain. One such incident is thumb dislocation, which occurs when the tissues that hold the joints together get torn. When these ligaments are getting worse torn it paves a way for bones to move or dislocated from its normal position.
In some cases when the thumb dislocated it causes pain, swell and brush in the hand which might cause you severe pain at instance due to sort of small fracture. In such a case there is no other option to go with surgery to make your thumb bone stable and keep joining. All these facts are commonly known to you but several other doubts may also arise when you hear about the dislocated thumb such as why thumb do get dislocated/ how to have primary remedy from the swell or pain and so on. Get to know all about them just by checking down further here.
What causes the dislocated thumb?
Each finger of humans does have three joints whereas the thumb finger alone has two joints which enable the person to stretch and bend their fingers. In any instance, the joints between two bones get worse or dislocated from its normal position there you experience a thumb dislocation. Often the thumb dislocate occurs in many circumstances such as,
- Sports or athlete injuries
- Step missed fall with an outstretched arm
- Met with accident
- Genetic problems
All these remain to be the major causes for thumb dislocation. However, people with weaker joints and ligaments have a greater risk of having thumb dislocations so those people should make sure to be more cautious in all their works.
Can you move your thumb if it’s dislocated?
By now you might clear with the causes and effects of the thumb dislocation and how it occurs? Besides knowing all such information, it is also better to know what to do as the first treatment when you find the bones are dislocated in the thumb. If you have detailed research over this, the first question arises in people’s minds is can thumb moved when it is dislocated? This would be common doubt that prevails in people’s minds. You would get a perfect answer here along with the symptoms to find whether your thumb bones are dislocated or not.
The thumb dislocation is so painful which is not a life-threatening one but it seeks out for an immediate medical emergency. So, when you found that your thumb bones are dislocated then the first thing would be seeking medical attention. In the mean, while you should also take care of fingers from more damage. The most main thing does not move your damaged finger out of pain or swell as it causes further damage in the ligaments which may cause a really bad end. Instead, you can apply ice over the dislocated thumb to reduce your pain and swell.
And the second thing is done ever try to relocate the bones into the joint which might cause you with more pain, swell and make condition worse. Only a trained expert can able to relocate the bone joint back to its normal position so make sure not move your dislocated thumb finger back. If you still do the same then unfortunately you would risk of damaging,
- Ligaments
- Nerves
- Tendons
- Blood vessels
- Joint articular cartilage
All these structures get damaged permanently which might make your thumb remains dislocated forever.
Symptoms to find the dislocated thumb:
Everything is fine about the thumb dislocation causes, what should be done but how to find whether the thumb is dislocated. Not just a pain over the thumb means your thumb is dislocated do not rush for research here are symptoms of a dislocated thumb that are listed below.
- If your thumb dislocated your finger
- Joints look crooked or misshapen
- The bone looks sticking out to one side
- You can see swelling and bruising around the joints
- You can experience severe pain around the joints
- You cannot move your finger as like normal
If you experience all these symptoms then for sure your fingers might be dislocated and need medical treatment.
How a dislocated thumb is treated?
The Dislocated thumb treatment varies based on the condition of joints, bone, and its severity. So first the finger would be diagnosed using an x-ray or MRI scan to find out its condition and severity level. Based on that the treatment it will be proceed in a stepwise manner. Need to know what are they just check out below to know about the treatment.
- Reduction – The first step of treatment would be trying to relocate the bone back to its joint this process is known as reduction. To make this happen doctors would use an anesthetic to numb the affected area and check for x-ray report whether the bone got aligned or not.
- Splint – After the reduction process you are advised to wear a splint to keep your injured finger stable without mobilizing. This helps a lot to protect the finger from a further accident
- Buddy taping – In some cases doctors do run a buddy tape i.e., medical tape over the splinted finger to provide better support over the injury.
- K-wire fixation – Some instances there are chances for bones to get fractured when it is dislocated at that time along with reduction and splint k-w2ire fixation is also done where metal rods would be implanted to stabilize the bone.
- Surgery – There are chances for happening severe ligaments damage, bone broken, and fracture in such case medical experts would suggest going for surgery which is an open reduction process.
All the above dislocated thumb treatment make sure your damaged finger does not mobilize till it heals out completely and make sure to stabilize them without damaging surrounding structures. However, while wearing a splint, buddy taping it might cover 4 to 6 weeks so you should make sure to keep them clean and dry and use ice compression when the pain and swells are high and your dislocated thumb gets recovered to its normal position.
More resource: What is this hard bump on finger?
