What causes stiff hands and feet?

Stiffness in the hands and feet is mostly caused by joint stiffness, which refers to varying degrees of dysfunction in the joints, which will reduce the range of motion of the joints. This situation is relatively harmful to patients, and they should go to the hospital for examination in time to understand the specific cause. The more common ones include arthritis, which can be treated through physical therapy, local massage, and external application of Chinese medicine. More serious cases can also be treated with surgery.

What causes stiff hands and feet?

1. Any cause of joint adhesion is also the cause of joint stiffness

Edema, repeated injuries, passive traction, manual release, infection, foreign body stimulation, long-term plaster fixation, improper internal fixation with steel needles, internal fixation with steel plates, surgical trauma, lack of timely treatment after trauma, persistent swelling, and lack of timely exercise after fracture healing can all lead to ankylosis of the joints.

2. Joint diseases

All joints with arthritis, especially rheumatic atrophic arthritis, are most likely to become fixed and cause stiffness. Such as joint ankylosis caused by acute suppurative inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, osteoarthritis, suppurative arthritis and bone tuberculosis.

Treatment principles

1. Mild patients

Local massage, physical therapy, external application of Chinese medicine, joint function exercisers and manual release can be used as therapies. Non-surgical therapies are also suitable for those with contraindications to surgery and as auxiliary treatments before and after surgery.

2. Severely ill patients

Joint adhesion lysis should be performed. For patients with malformed fracture healing, the deformity should generally be corrected first. Those with local soft tissue defects should also undergo reconstructive surgery. Active and positive joint function exercises should be started as early as possible so that stiff joints can recover their functions as soon as possible. Joint function exercises are very painful, but they are still necessary after joint adhesion lysis surgery.

Treatment and prevention of joint stiffness:

When the joints are stiff, you should start active and positive joint function exercises as soon as possible so that the pseudo-hard joints can recover their function as soon as possible. There are several functional training methods:

(1) Physical therapy: It can maintain or improve the range of motion of stiff joints, prevent muscle atrophy, enhance ligament elasticity, increase muscle strength, and improve joint flexibility. It can be done in several ways.

1) Isometric muscle contraction, also known as "tension". Especially after fracture reduction and fixation, or when joints are swollen and painful and cannot be moved, several muscle contraction and tension exercises can be performed every day to facilitate recovery from the injury and avoid joint stiffness.

2) Active movement: In the early stages of stiff joints, active anti-gravity exercises should be performed, such as flexion and extension of the knee joint, rotation of the shoulder joint, contraction and extension of the tendons and joints, and flexion and extension of the legs of the lower limbs. Then practice resistance activities, such as tying a sandbag to your lower body to practice straight-leg raises, and also practice squatting with the help of the head of the bed, which is more conducive to the recovery of lower limb joint function.

3) Passive exercise: It is suitable for patients with reduced ligament elasticity and adhesion of muscles around joints. During the operation, the patient should relax as much as possible and the surgeon will help the stiff joints to move. However, rough and simple movements are strictly prohibited. The movements should be slow and of moderate intensity so as not to cause joint pain. Perform the treatment once a day, 3-5 minutes each time.