What should you know about professional hand therapy?

A hand therapist examines movement, grip, sensation, swelling, dexterity and the tasks that are difficult at home or work. Treatment may include gentle mobility exercises, strengthening, scar or swelling care, splint fitting, nerve-gliding work and practice with useful hand movements. The programme is adjusted as tissues heal and should match your diagnosis and activity needs.

Hand therapy can support recovery from a distal radius fracture, De Quervain's Tenosynovitis, Hand Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis or Dupuytren's Contracture. It may also be used around procedures such as Carpal Tunnel Release or Dupuytren's Surgery.

Bring details of your symptoms, previous treatment, medicines and the tasks you want to regain. Wear clothing that leaves the arm accessible, and tell the therapist about numbness, skin changes or pain that worsens during an exercise. Home practice is usually a key part of progress; use the prescribed repetitions and ask for a simpler version if a movement causes sharp pain.

A therapist may teach joint protection, pacing, ergonomic changes or ways to use an assistive tool while the hand recovers. Keep splints clean, follow wearing instructions and report rubbing or increasing swelling promptly.

Seek urgent assessment for a newly deformed hand, a hand that becomes cold or blue, rapidly increasing swelling, loss of feeling, or inability to move a finger after an injury. Contact your treating clinician promptly for fever, wound drainage, spreading redness or pain that escalates after surgery. These signs need medical review rather than a change to exercises alone.

Ask which movements are safe now, whether a splint is appropriate, how much discomfort is expected during practice, and what change should prompt a review. Clarify who will coordinate therapy if surgery, injections or imaging are also planned.