ORTHOPEDICS/HAND & WRIST
Tumors on the Back Hand
A ganglion tumor is a fluid-filled pill. A wrist ganglion tumor is an inflammation that generally happens around the hand or wrist.
Good that they are not cancerous and they will not spread; therefore, they may grow in size without spreading to other parts of your body.
Ganglion tumors can happen on the back of the hand or on the palm side of the wrist.
When Ganglion tumors happen on the back of the hand, we say dorsal ganglion tumors, and when they happen on the palm side of the wrist, we say volar ganglion tumors.
Ganglion tumors are in fact not “real tumors,” but rather they arise as sacks of fluid that comes from the small joints of the wrist, or from fluid within the cover that surrounds the wrist ligaments.
The fluid is called synovial fluid. When this fluid drips out from these places, it can form a sack-like assembly ganglion tumor.
The fluid within the ganglion tumor is alike to the normal fluid found within a joint or within a ligament cover.
This fluid is gelatinous, and looks and feels like jelly.
Hand and Wrist Tumors and Punches
When a tumor occurs on the back of a hand or on a wrist, it is important to check it with the doctor to ensure it is simply a ganglion tumor.
While (most commonly) Tumors and Punches of the hand and wrist are ganglion tumors, there are other situations that have different therapy.
Note that other kind of tumors such as a lipoma or giant cell tumor, infections, carpal bossing (bone spur), and other situations can cause bumps around the wrist as well.
Most frequently, the appearance of Ganglion tumors bothers patients, since they did not adhere to the skin, and the skin did have normal color.
Diagnosis a ganglion tumor is doing by holding a light source, such as a flashlight facing the swelling, an ordinary ganglion tumor should trans-illuminate, meaning that light will pass through the swelling indicating that it is a fluid and not solid mass.
Ganglion Tumor Therapy
Occasionally, wrist ganglion tumors disappear without any therapy, or they may remain, or even grow bigger.
When the ganglion tumor becomes large enough, it start to put pressure all over the spaces, causing painful signs.
Therapy of a wrist ganglion tumor consist by putting a needle into the ganglion tumor and aspirating the fluid. However, the gelatinous fluid inside the tumor does not permanently come out through a needle perfectly, in addition, that this therapy keeps the tumor lining behind, and the ganglion tumor, will most probably be regenerated
Note that this draining process is a simple procedure to perform, but the side effect is that the chance of reappearance is rather high.
Additional alternative called traditional is to blow the wrist ganglion tumor with a solid entity that cracks the swelling, and cuts the lining of
On the other hand, the most violent therapy for a persistent and painful ganglion tumor is to remove it with a surgical process.
While this procedure is generally operative, a small percentage of removed wrist ganglion tumor will still reappear.
Surgical therapy of a wrist ganglion tumor has been well described both as an open surgical technique (through a skin incision) and as an arthroscopic measures.
Finally
Generally, hand and wrist experts did not recommend therapy for these kind of tumors, because they are not harmful, and will not cause any long-term difficulty; in addition, with volar ganglion tumors, the therapy can be challenging, and generates complications such as inflammation or ligament damage.