Body part
Hand & wrist
Skeletal Muscular
Many small joints make the hands an early and telling site of inflammatory arthritis.
Common conditions
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Rheumatoid arthritis
An autoimmune disease causing symmetric joint inflammation, often starting in the hands and wrists.
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Hand osteoarthritis
Wear of the small joints of the hand, causing knobbly, achy, stiff fingers — common with age.
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Carpal tunnel syndrome
Compression of the median nerve at the wrist, causing numbness, tingling, and pain in the thumb, index, and middle fingers — often worse at night.