What Causes Swollen Fingers and How to Treat Them
Many underlying conditions can cause swollen fingers, but many of these are not serious. However, when combined with new or other symptoms, it may indicate something more serious.
Swollen fingers can be an alarming symptom, especially if they’re accompanied by other symptoms such as redness and pain.
In this article, we explain some of the common causes of swollen fingers. We also discuss when swelling in your fingers might be a cause for concern.
Most Common Causes of Swollen Fingers
This article highlights the 18 most common reasons we get swollen fingers. It also describes the
key signs requiring immediate medical attention. Each cause is explored in detail below. In order of most-to-least common, these causes are:
- Diet
- Injury
- Fluid retention
- Infection
- Arthritis
- Hormones
- Allergy
- Sleep position
- Heat
- Exercising
- Gout
- Preeclampsia
- Fluid blockage
- Scleroderma
- Tendonitis
- Bursitis
- Sickle cell disease
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
1. Swollen fingers from diet
2. Swollen fingers from injury
3. Swollen fingers from fluid retention
4. Swollen fingers from infection
5. Swollen fingers from arthritis
6. Swollen fingers from hormones
7. Swollen fingers from allergy
8. Swollen fingers from sleep position
9. Swollen fingers from heat
10. Swollen fingers from exercising
11. Swollen fingers from gout
12. Swollen fingers from preeclampsia
13. Swollen fingers from fluid blockage
14. Swollen fingers from scleroderma
15. Swollen fingers from carpal tunnel syndrome
16. Swollen fingers from tendonitis
17. Swollen fingers from bursitis
18. Swollen fingers from sickle cell disease
Rarer causes of swollen fingers
In some cases, swollen fingers may be a rare symptom another condition. Such conditions include:
- Patients with
tuberculosis have been known to experience swollen fingers. But this is extremely uncommon.
- Sarcoidosis is a condition that occurs when your immune system forms swollen, red lumps (called
granulomas) in different organs of the body. Finger swelling from sarcoidosis (called
sarcoid tenosynovitis) has been known to occur.
- If left untreated, the venereal disease called
syphilis can affect almost any body part. Rarely, it can also result in swollen fingers.
Summary
Numerous health conditions can cause swollen fingers. Most of the more common conditions are usually not dangerous. But when swollen fingers are accompanied by other symptoms, it can signal there’s something more complex, and perhaps dangerous, evolving in your body. That underlying condition will likely require medical attention.