Table of contents:
- Why do the fingers swell up like sausages?
- Various causes of dactylitis and accompanying symptoms
- How to treat this condition?
Have you ever seen a parody of a cut finger that turns out to be a sausage? Not just engineering, it turns out that there are conditions that make someone's fingers look similar to sausages. Swollen fingers like sausages are also called dactylitis or sausage fingers. Intrigued by this disease? Check out the following reviews.
Why do the fingers swell up like sausages?
Your fingers can become swollen due to insect bites. However, swelling due to insect bites is different from dactylitis. Dactylitis causes swelling of all the fingers and toes up to the size of a sausage.
Dactylitis occurs due to infection, inflammation, or autoimmune disorders. In addition to swelling, dactylitis symptoms generally cause pain, warmth to the touch, and difficulty moving fingers.
Various causes of dactylitis and accompanying symptoms
Sausage finger is not a disease, but a condition that arises due to certain medical problems, including:
Sickle cell anemia
Sickle cell anemia occurs as a result of changes in hemoglobin so that the red blood cells form a crescent or curved shape.
Changes in hemoglobin cause the body's ability to get enough oxygen to be impaired. As a result, the body's tissues will be deprived of oxygen and cause severe pain.
Well, in people with sickle cell anemia, the first symptom that appears is dactylitis. Other symptoms that include it are fever, pain, and a raised white blood cell count.
Tuberculosis (TB)
Although rare, dactylitis is a complication of tuberculosis. In addition to attacking the lungs, TB inflammation can spread to the bony area of the hands and feet, causing pain, swelling, and changes in the shape of the fingers or toes. In most cases, dactylitis due to tuberculosis affects only one side of the body.
Sarcoidosis
Sarcoidosis is an inflammation of the body cells that can attack the heart, liver, kidneys, lungs and other vital organs. Although rare, sarcoidosis can affect the bones and muscles, causing the fingers to swell with severe pain.
Syphilis
Pregnant women who have syphilis can pass this disease on to their children. Babies born with this condition can develop dactylitis on the fingers and toes.
Spondyloarthritis
Spondyloarthritis is a collection of inflammation that occurs in joints and enthesis, which is the tissue that attaches tendons, ligaments, and bones.
One of the most common types of spondyloarthritis is psoriatic arthritis. One-third of people with this condition develop dactylitis. Most likely the swelling is due to inflammation.
Infection
Some infections can cause tissue swelling deep beneath the skin, even on the kidney, such as blister distal dactylitis.
This condition occurs due to infection with streptococcus or staphylococcus bacteria on the fat pads of the fingers and toes. In addition to swollen fingers, blister distal dactylitis can cause blisters and sores in the surrounding skin area.
How to treat this condition?
Dactylitis can make it difficult for you to carry out your daily activities. To overcome this, of course you must first know the medical problems that cause dactylitis. That way, you can treat the disease as well as prevent dactylitis from getting worse.
In addition, there are some tips that you can apply to be able to do normal activities, such as:
- Maintain body weight by adopting an anti-inflammatory diet
- Doing health therapy to keep the small joints in the hands working properly
- Doing routine exercise such as swimming, walking, cycling, yoga, tai chi
- Reduce stress and control anxiety with meditation and breathing exercises
