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Medical Author:

Chad Tarr, MD

Medical Editor:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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The symptoms of hand injuries can vary depending on the type of injury, how the injury occurred (mechanism), depth, severity, and location.

Common symptoms of hand injuries

Lacerations

• Tenderness (pain)
• Bleeding
• Numbness
• Decrease range of motion (difficulty moving)
• Weakness
• Pallor (pale or bloodless)

Fractures and dislocations

• Tenderness
• Deformity
• Swelling and discoloration
• Decrease range of motion
• Numbness
• Weakness
• Bleeding

Soft tissue injuries and amputations

• Tenderness
• Deformity (with or without tissue and bone loss)
• Swelling and discoloration
• Bleeding
• Weakness
• Numbness

Infections

• Tenderness
• Local warmth
• Redness
• Swelling
• Fever (rare in hand infections)
• Deformity
• Decrease range of motion

Burns

• Tenderness or complete numbness
• Deformity
• Discoloration
• Loss of tissue
• Change in texture of skin
• Redness
• Blistering
• Black areas of tissue

High pressure injuries

• Pain
• Swelling
• Occasional skin discoloration

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