Wrist Pain Specialist

Pain Care Boise

Pain Medicine located in Boise, ID

If you have aching, searing, or sporadic wrist pain, ordinary activities like using a keyboard or cleaning the house can be real trials. At Pain Care Boise in downtown Boise, Idaho, the region’s best interventional pain management specialists offer personalized treatments for wrist pain problems like carpal tunnel syndrome and osteoarthritis. Board-certified physicians Christopher Vaughan, MD, use minimally invasive treatments to allow you again to use your wrist and hands normally. Book your appointment online or by phone now.

FAQ’s

Wrist Pain Q&A

What is wrist pain?

Wrist pain refers to any soreness, discomfort, or pain at the base of your hand. Your wrist includes joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles, and other parts that interact in a complex way to allow for smooth and painless motion.

Sometimes disease, wear-and-tear, and injury can involve one or more of those tissues. This can lead to localized pain and sometimes pain and problems in the hand or lower arm.

What causes wrist pain?

Common causes of wrist pain include:

Carpal tunnel syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome is triggered by the median nerve (the main wrist nerve) becoming compressed or pinched in your wrist. It causes pain, numbness, tingling, and weakness.

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis breaks down the cartilage at the end of the bones that make up the joint, leading to joint pain. Osteoarthritis can affect one or more hand and wrist joints. In particular, osteoarthritis often affects the joints at the base of the thumb.

Tendon problems

Several tendon problems can lead to wrist pain. De Quervain’s tenosynovitis is an overuse condition affecting the two tendons leading to your thumb. Intersection syndrome happens when one tendon crosses over another in your inner wrist.

Trigger finger, in which a finger contracts due to flexor tendon irritation, technically causes hand pain. But it can also show up in the thumb (trigger thumb) to cause wrist pain.

Cysts

Ganglion cysts, small bumps filled with fluid, can appear on the top of your wrist or elsewhere in your hand.

Many other causes of wrist pain include fractures and surgical complications. Pain Care Boise diagnoses the problem and stops your wrist pain using a range of cutting-edge pain management treatments.

How is wrist pain treated?

Wrist pain treatment at Pain Care Boise typically includes interventional procedures or minimally invasive surgery. Common treatments include:

Carpal tunnel release

Carpal tunnel release is a microinvasive, no-stitch surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome. During this procedure, your surgeon makes one tiny 4-5 mm incision in your wrist.

Your surgeon uses ultrasound guidance to cut the transverse carpal ligament, which immediately relieves median nerve pressure. This specialized approach gives you faster pain relief. It has a much shorter recovery period than open surgery or endoscopic procedures.

Steroid injections

Steroid injections temporarily reduce carpal tunnel pain and can ease osteoarthritis wrist pain in one or two joints. These injections also treat most tendon-related wrist pain.

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP)

PRP injections effectively treat some cases of osteoarthritis in the wrist area. It’s also used to treat ligament injuries affecting the wrist, like skier’s thumb.

Puncture and aspiration

If you have a cyst in or on your wrist, your surgeon can puncture and drain it to ease your pain.

If you have ongoing wrist pain following open hand or wrist surgery, the Pain Care Boise team offers a treatment called peripheral nerve stimulation. It interrupts pain signals. The team rarely recommends invasive open surgery because it’s rarely really necessary.

Pain Care Boise takes wrist pain seriously because they understand how difficult it can be. Call the office today or click the provided link to book your appointment now.