Arthrosis occurs as a degenerative, non-inflammatory disease of the joints, especially in older age. Affected is the joint cartilage, which is damaged by overstrain in the course of life and eventually causes complaints. Increased stress conditions of a joint section, such as those that occur with overweight and one-sided stress in the case of joint malposition, promote wear and tear of the cartilage.
In principle, any joint can be affected. Knee joint and hip joint arthrosis are of the greatest economic importance. Finger arthrosis often causes considerable problems in coping with everyday life and, in severe cases, leads to deformation of the hand.
Forms of finger arthrosis
Several forms of arthrosis can be distinguished in the upper extremity. While the so-called omarthrosis affects the shoulder joint, a distinction is made between arthrosis of the hand at the metacarpophalangeal and distal joints of the fingers and at the base of the thumb. If the finger end joints are affected by arthritic changes, it is called siphoning arthrosis, and for the finger middle joints, it is called Bouchard arthrosis. The disease of the metacarpophalangeal joint of the thumb is called rhizarthrosis. While Heberden’s arthritis and rhizarthrosis occur mainly in the female sex, Bouchard’s arthritis is evenly distributed between the sexes.
Symptoms
The symptoms of osteoarthritis can be divided into early and late symptoms. In an early phase of the disease, the affected person usually feels a pain in the affected joint in the morning, which improves in the course of the day. Since the intensity of the pain decreases with the duration of movement, this is referred to as starting pain.
After continuous stress, a pain due to strain or fatigue can finally occur. Typical for an early stage of the disease is also the so-called end-phase pain, a pain that occurs during a final movement (e.g. maximum flexion) of the joint. Late symptoms occur in advanced stages of the disease.
The initial pain in the morning often turns into a permanent pain, which can also occur at night and lead to sleep problems. Strongly advanced wear and tear of the cartilage surface can lead to severe restrictions in movement. In the finger joint area, deforming joint changes occur in the late stages of the disease.
For example, in the case of siphoning arthrosis there are swellings of the finger end joints called siphoning knots. In addition to pain and restricted movement, these changes also represent an increasing cosmetic problem. One speaks of an activated arthrosis when inflammatory episodes of the joint occur. Activated arthrosis must be distinguished from rheumatoid arthritis, which usually does not affect the end joints of the fingers or the metacarpophalangeal joints of the thumb.
