Dropsy On The Hands - Causes And Methods Of Treatment

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 17:49

Dropsy on hands, how to treat?

Swelling of the hand, forearm and shoulder is caused by excessive accumulation of interstitial fluid in the tissues of one or both hands. Pathology is not an independent disease. Rather, it is a symptom of various disorders of the liver and kidneys, appearing in heart disease, blockage of large veins, and compression of lymphatic vessels. In each specific case of dropsy of the hands, in order to determine the cause of the appearance of edema, the doctor will have to carefully collect an anamnesis and conduct a multi-stage diagnosis.

Content:

• Causes of dropsy of hands
• Treatment methods for dropsy hands

Causes of dropsy of hands

The most common causes of upper limb edema are:

• Heart failure. In case of disruption of the work of the heart muscle as a result of damage to the heart muscle, part of the venous blood does not return to the vessels of the lungs, stagnating in the veins of the extremities and causing edema. It predisposes to heart failure myocardial infarction, amyloidosis, myocarditis, congenital and acquired heart defects, toxic damage.

  Swelling of the hands appears when the pathological process is pronounced and has already caused swelling of the legs. They appear in the afternoon when the heart muscle gets tired. Dropsy of the hands, caused by heart failure, is accompanied by shortness of breath, heart palpitations, pain in the heart, and increased fatigue.
• Decreased blood protein. Albumin proteins, synthesized in the liver, directly affect the oncotic blood pressure, as they intensively bind water molecules. If the protein concentration is lowered, the osmotic pressure of the blood decreases. This causes the blood vessels to lose their ability to retain water. It penetrates through their walls, lingers in the tissues, causing dropsy of the hands. The reasons for a decrease in the amount of protein can be diseases such as liver pathologies, protein deficiency due to an unbalanced diet, bowel and kidney diseases.

• Parhon's syndrome. The protein hormone vasopressin, produced by the pituitary gland, stimulates the renal cells to absorb large amounts of water and minimal amounts of sodium. With excessive production of the hormone, fluid is retained in the vascular bed and in the tissues of the body, causing edema. In addition to dropsy of the hands, this disease causes headache, cramps, depression, weakness, abdominal pain and nausea.
• Cancer of the Pancost. A tumor formed at the apex of the lung, upon reaching a significant size, compresses the subclavian vein, which leads to disruption of venous blood flow and the accumulation of intercellular fluid, causing edema. With a Pancost tumor, one-sided edema, atrophy of the muscles of the arm, headache, fever occurs.
• Mixidem. Pathology occurs in diseases of the thyroid gland, when a violation of hormonal regulation leads to an imbalance of protein in the body and the appearance of edema. With myxidema, the hands usually swell, the patient feels apathy, depression, drowsiness, disruption of the normal functioning of the intestines, weakness, headaches.

• Lymph congestion. In case of violation of the patency of the vessels of the lymphatic system, hydrostatic pressure arises in them, which leads to a retention of intercellular fluid in the tissues of the hands. Lymphostasis appears with filariasis (parasitic diseases), after removal of the mammary gland, with injuries and erysipelas, as a result of a congenital defect of the lymphatic vessels.
• Allergy. When an allergen (drugs, drinks, pollen, room dust, chemical reagents) enters the body, the body reacts with the appearance of edema syndrome. Hands swell in the area of the hand, fingers, forearm, accompanied by itching and redness.
• Superior vena cava syndrome. Pathology arises as a symptom of aortic aneurysm, lung cancer, chest tumor, lung cyst, clogged vein with a thrombus. In this case, venous blood flow is blocked, blood stagnation is formed, interstitial fluid accumulates in the vessels and surrounding tissues, and swelling of the hands, neck, and face occurs. These negative manifestations are accompanied by cough, shortness of breath, varicose veins, weakness, drowsiness, and suffocation.

• Gestosis. With such a pathology of pregnancy as gestosis, an excessive amount of protein is excreted in the urine of a woman. As a result, blood pressure rises, edema of the legs, arms and face occurs. Edema syndrome is observed on the hands, fingers of both hands, accompanied by severe headaches, nausea, vomiting, convulsions. The occurrence of this pathology is greatly influenced by the action of hormones (adrenaline, renin, aldosterone), which contribute to an increase in the permeability of the vascular walls.

Treatment methods for dropsy hands

The most common treatment for dropsy in the hands is medication. In addition, they use tight bandaging of the limbs, physiotherapy and surgical treatment aimed at removing tumors, cysts and other pathologies that cause edema.

Drug treatment

The attending physician selects medicines of various pharmaceutical groups, focusing on the cause of the edema.

Drugs for the treatment of dropsy:

• Antibacterial agents - used to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms in the treatment of intestinal, liver and kidney infections, limb injuries.
• Anti-inflammatory drugs - reduce pain and swelling in liver and kidney pathologies, intestinal diseases, erysipelas and inflammation of the lymphatic vessels, in case of allergies.
• Anticoagulants - reduce blood viscosity and the ability to thrombus in cardiac pathologies, vena cava syndrome, causing hand edema.
• Diuretics (diuretics) - used to remove excess fluid through the kidneys during gestosis, cardiac edema, decrease in oncotic pressure, vena cava syndrome.
• Fibrinolytics - destroy blood clots in blood vessels in vena cava syndrome.
• Antihypertensive drugs - lower the level of blood pressure in cardiovascular pathologies, gestosis, kidney disease.
• Hormones - used for mixidem and diabetes mellitus.
• Antihistamines - Used to treat allergies.

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy procedures are used to reduce swelling and inflammation in the tissues of the hands, vasodilation, and normalize lymph outflow.

Physiotherapy:

• Electrophoresis - the introduction of drugs into tissues without violating the integrity of the skin, under the influence of an electromagnetic field, has a pronounced therapeutic effect.
• Low-frequency magnetic therapy - relieves pain, relieves swelling, improves tissue trophism, stimulates the movement of blood and lymph, is most often used to treat injuries of the extremities.
• UHF therapy - restores vascular innervation, relieves inflammation, relaxes muscles, has a trophic effect.
• UV radiation - ultraviolet waves relieve inflammation, destroy pathogenic bacteria, and regulate local immunity.
• SMV therapy - treats swelling of the hands caused by myxidema, stimulates the normal function of the thyroid gland.

Surgery

Radical surgical intervention in the human body is not the main method of treating dropsy of the hands. It is used when other treatments are ineffective and useless. The operation removes tumors and cysts of the spine, liver, kidneys, pinching blood and lymph vessels and their nerve endings.

Indications for surgical intervention for hand edema:

• Heart diseases - implantation of a pacemaker, heart and vascular transplantation to eliminate heart failure.
• Reducing the amount of protein in the blood - elimination of tumors, abscesses and cysts of the kidneys, liver, intestines.
• Pancost's cancer is the elimination of a lung tumor.
• Superior vena cava syndrome - thrombectomy to remove a clotted vein with a thrombus.

Tight bandaging

Compression treatment of dropsy of the hands with an elastic bandage helps to remove intercellular fluid from the edema zone into the venous and lymphatic vessels. The mechanism of action of this method is to squeeze the upper skin, where the main part of the intercellular fluid is located. The tight bandage with elastic material creates a strong external resistance that water cannot overcome.

This method of treatment is most often used in violation of lymphatic drainage in trauma, damage to lymphatic vessels, after mastectomy.

Treatment of dropsy of the hands is impossible without accurate diagnosis, scrupulous adherence to the recommendations of the attending physician.

Author of the article: Alekseeva Maria Yurievna | Therapist

Education: From 2010 to 2016 Practitioner of the therapeutic hospital of the central medical-sanitary unit No. 21, city of elektrostal. Since 2016 she has been working in the diagnostic center No. 3.