How Is Thumb Arthritis Diagnosed? - Dr. Steinmann (VIDEO)
Dr. Steinmann describes how he diagnoses a patient with thumb arthritis.
More Videos from Dr. Scott Steinmann 22 videos in this series
Dr. Steinmann:
When you examine the patient you can feel that they are having pain at their joint. You can feel the grinding of that joint. Sometimes there’s a little bit of looseness with that joint also.
It’s important to emphasize that it’s a clinical diagnosis, not just based on x-rays. I have a lot of patients that have carpal tunnel, for example. When we get x-rays sometimes for carpal tunnel and I’ll turn to the patient and say, “How does your thumb feel? You have a very arthritic thumb.” “Sir, it feels fine.”
So there’s the difference between radiographic arthritis, which may not hurt. So it’s possible that you could have an arthritic thumb and it doesn’t hurt and that does not require treatment at all. It’s only a symptomatic painful thumb that actually we treat with medications or bracing or surgery.
About Dr. Steinmann, M.D.:
Dr. Scott P. Steinmann, M.D., is on orthopedic surgery at the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center in Minnesota. Dr. Steinmann received his medical training from Cornell University Medical College in New York, completed his residency in orthopedics at New York Orthopedic Hospital and completed a fellowships focusing on the shoulder and hand surgery from Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and Mayo Graduate School of Medicine respectively.
