Hand Infection

Aka: Hand Infection, Infected Hand, Infected Finger, Finger Infection

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II. Types

  1. Finger tip (superficial Hand Infections)
    1. Acute Paronychia
    2. Chronic Paronychia
    3. Felon
    4. Herpetic Whitlow
  2. Deep Hand Infections
    1. Infected open Fracture (e.g. fifth Metacarpal Fracture)
    2. Suppurative Tenosynovitis
    3. Human Bite (due to clenched fist injury)
  3. Regional Infections
    1. Cellulitis
    2. Nodular Lymphangitis

III. Differential Diagnosis: Non-infectious Causes of Hand Lesions

  1. Acute calcific Tendinitis
  2. Chronic Paronychia
  3. Hand Dermatitis
  4. Contact Dermatitis
  5. Dyshidrotic Eczema
  6. Foreign body skin reaction
  7. Inflammatory Arthritis
  8. Pyogenic Granuloma

IV. Management

  1. Treat for specific causes above
  2. General measures
    1. See Cellulitis for general measures
    2. Tetanus Prophylaxis for open wounds
    3. Irrigate open wounds
    4. Incision and Drainage for abscesses
    5. Surgical Debridement for necrotic tissue within wound
    6. Rest and elevate the affected hand (reduces edema)
    7. Apply warm compresses to the affected hand (increases local Blood Flow and antibiotic delivery)
    8. Splint in a position of function (decreases risk of flexion contractures)
  3. Open Fracture
    1. Emergent orthopedic Consultation
    2. Antibiotic coverage
      1. Start with first generation Cephalosporin
      2. Add Aminoglycoside for contaminated wounds
      3. Add high dose Penicillin if Clostridium suspected

V. References

  1. Rerucha (2019) Am Fam Physician 99(4):228-36 [PubMed]

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Related Studies

Ontology: Infection of finger (C0555974)

Concepts Disease or Syndrome (T047)
SnomedCT 299991003, 200736008, 200732005
Dutch geïnfecteerde vinger, infectie; vinger, vinger{s}; infectie
French Doigt infecté
German infizierter Finger
Italian Dito infetto
Portuguese Dedo da mão infectado
Spanish Dedo de mano infectado, infección de dedo de la mano (trastorno), infección de dedo de la mano
Japanese 指感染, ｼｶﾝｾﾝ, ﾕﾋﾞｶﾝｾﾝ
English Infection finger, Infection of finger, Infection of finger (disorder), infection of fingers, infection of fingers (physical finding), Infected finger, finger infections, fingers infection, infection finger, Infection;finger(s), finger infection, fingers infected, fingers infections, infected finger, Infection finger (disorder), disorder of hand finger infection, Infection of finger (diagnosis), finger(s); infection, infection; finger
Czech Infekce prstu
Hungarian Fertőzött ujj
Derived from the NIH UMLS (Unified Medical Language System)

Ontology: Infected hand (C0577657)

Concepts Disease or Syndrome (T047)
SnomedCT 300950007
English disorder of hand infected, Infected hand (diagnosis), Infected hand, Infected hand (disorder)
Spanish mano infectada (trastorno), mano infectada
Derived from the NIH UMLS (Unified Medical Language System)

Related Topics in Infectious Disease

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