Thumb pain 18 months post wrist fracture and 1 yr since carpal tunnel release

[Farry]

Hi.

I broke my wrist following a skiing accident 18 months ago. Six months after that I had a carpel tunnel release on the same hand as scar tissue had left me with constant pins and needles.

I'm pretty happy with my wrist now, movement is back to it's full range, if occasionally a bit stiff. Also the carpal tunnel release was successful and now only bothers me if I really over use that hand or if I've knocked it etc, but it doesn't last.

The one thing really bothering me is that I still get quite a bit of pain deep in the pad of my thumb. I was xrayed for a scaphoid fracture too at the time and was cleared, I (just!) broke my radius near the wrist joint. So I'm pretty sure it's not that. I do have a slight puckering now in the middle of my thumb pad which deepens into a hollow when reached across to the little finger - significantly different to the opposite hand.

Anyone with any ideas what this is? I've worked hard to recover from the fracture and then carpel release and this one thing is a constant reminder, the rest I can live with!

[Heidi]

If there were no other fractures present I can only guess that there was some soft tissue damage to the muscles forming the thenar eminence (pad of the thumb - i presume you mean this part anyway, the mass of muscle at the base of the thumb?)

This wouldn't have shown up on x-rays and swelling/pain from the fracture would have masked the muscle/ligament damage.

[Farry]

Thanks, that would make sense.

Anything I can do to help it at this stage or is this likely to be it now?

[Heidi]

Well the puckering of the skin is possibly caused by a build up of scar tissue. I would advise a trip to the physio/sports therapist etc. They can massage and ultrasound the hand to help break this down.

You could also try to stretch out that small area of muscle by gently pulling the thumb away from the hand. Make sure it is gently and there is no pain when you do this, an aching feeling is fine and to be expected.