Numbness on hands

Numbness on hands

I would like to continue sharing my clinical experience with others, today I want to clarify some anatomy structure which are related to hand numbness. Commonly people would make the link between cervical spondylosis, stroke those two disease and hand numbness.  I am trying to demonstrate the relationships among those problems.

To figure out the numbness happening on the hands, it will give you a better understanding if you know the anatomical pathway of peripheral nerve towards hands. Our hands get stimulars from the environment such as temperature or pain; sensory cell will receive the stimulation and pass it on brain through medial, radial and ulnar nerve; before reaching our head, the information will be transported via cervical spine 5^th to 7^th (brachial plexus)and  transformed in thalamus and reflexes to sensory centre in brain cortex. So we can see that if anything wrong happening along the pathway, numbness will show up regarding to injury to brain, brachial plexus, spine, terminal neuritis and peripheral nerve

Since every disease has its own special signs and symptoms to be recognized as far as we are cognitive of.  It is quite rare to see numb hand only if any pathological change happening to brain, it normally combines with unusual sensation of half side’s body, weak feeling of limbs etc. Diseases we commonly see clinically are brain tumor, stroke, meningitis etc.

Spine problems that could result in hand numbness are cervical spondylosis, inflammation of nerve root which spinal nerve exits from spine respectively. If there is a spinal cord injury, doctor could test out some abnormal sensation.

Brachial plexus is divided into three branch: superior, medial and inferior trunk. Superior trunk injury can lead to immobility of shoulder lifting, but it does not show any numbness; inferior trunk injury can lead to distal dysfunction such as loss strength of grip with numbness on fingers.

Terminal neuritis happening to people who have diabetes, uremia or Raynaud’s disease will cause abnormal sensation of hand feeling like wearing gloves and symmetrically on both sides of body. I also met patient suffering sympathetic disorder feel numbness on hand as well.

Peripheral nerve dominates different part of body, in this case, medial nerve injury will cause fingertip numbness especially on middle and index finger. Radial nerve injury will cause numb area between thumb and index finger. Ulnar nerve damage will lead to sensation change on little and ring finger specially.

Numbness on hands is a simple symptoms, but to make a diagnosis need a hell of related medical experience to achieve the best treatment result rather than just putting needle on the neck or hand. Free to call us on 09-8150518 or visit us at 1054 new north road, mount albert.