Help!!!!! Lump in palm, possible pulley injury? or Dupuytren's?

I'd agree with the above posts, likely Dupuytren's contracture.  I have it as well in both hands, much more pronounced in my left hand.  I'm 38 myself and it came on pretty suddenly.  6 months ago there was no lumps and then all of a sudden they were quite large.  Doctor has given me a referral to a surgeon and waiting for an appointment (in Canada so appointment for specialist could be 2 years or longer....).

It's always the gym climbing that does this weird shit.

I must say that I am almost sure it's not Dupuytren... I have the exact same lump in my right palm that came on suddenly after I strained it riding a quad for several hours. It felt like a pop that hurt for a couple of minutes, was tender for a couple of days after and painless since. I went to my doctor friend who is an orthopedic surgeon and he said it was likely Dupuytren's but I never agreed to that.

Firstly, it came on suddenly, Dupuytren's is rather chronic, it evolves slowly, over several years, so it is highly unlikely only from this point of view it's Dupuytren. Secondly, the lump is not small, firm and it's not situated on the tendon sheet that connects the fingers but rather under it. There is no evolution of it, but rather it shrinks over time, slowly but surely. There is no contraction involved. And so on.

So I diagnosed myself having a synovial cyst, a rare one taking into consideration the location of it, instead of Dupuytren's, which usually comes on and acts the same way my lump does... so I took a syringe with a needle and tried to pop it and voila... there was some synovial fluid draining out of it. Now it's much smaller and really isn't bothersome and will completely heal some day. No need for any activity restriction.

PS: it's needles to use any anti-inflammatory for a synovial cyst, it only damages your body more. ;)

kristenu wrote: A few weeks ago I was bouldering in the gym and pulled pretty hard through a few crimps. My hand/fingers felt super strained when i came down, and i noticed that there was a small lump in the palm of my hand, about 3/4" below my ring & pinky finger. The pain went away within a few minutes, but the lump has been there for a few weeks now and the tendons in the palm of my hand where the lump is are slightly more visible than normal. I have full mobility and no pain at all, however my pinky finger feels really weak and shakes a bit..help! Can anyone tell me what i might have done? I've been researching for countless hours and all i can come up with is it might be a partial pulley tear, or Dupuytren's, but i'm a 30yr old female so i don't really fit that profile...Can i keep climbing if it doesn't hurt at all? I went to Red Rocks and bouldered hard the weekend after it happened and it didn't bother me, might have gotten slightly more swollen but thats it..

 Yes, you probably have Dupatrins. And women can get it also. I have it in my thumb and will eventually get surgery for it. I had it in both of my pinkies and have had surgery, one was straightened out and the other remained a little bent, I let it go to long. .  Once they start to bend in or curl I would consider getting surgery or the new technique of using a needle prick. I am confident that constant hand actions that are used in Climbing have slowed down the process but Has not eliminated it, it continues to grow. After surgery everything should be back to normal with no loss of strength.

I have something similar going on, it started about a month ago from pulling on a pocketed 12c. I came down and my palm hurt and there was a lump in line with my ring finger. I thought it was a lumbrical muscle strain, but it hasn't gone away. It swells up from climbing, but after a few days of rest the swelling mostly dissipates, but the smaller thick tissue lump remains. It hurts on sharp holds that press into it, but otherwise seems ok.

 It seems like there's a thickening of the cords in my hand, consistent with dupetryns, but the sudden onset and swelling associated with climbing suggest something else. Had it looked at by a hand surgeon and a PT, the surgeon said lumbrical muscle strain the PT said dupetryns. I stopped taking collagen supplements in case it's dupetryns and in case that helps?  

I did some gentle loading of the lumbrical muscle by raising and lowering a light weight with my ring finger and that caused it to swell extensively, far more than a day of climbing.  (The PT said not to do that). Buddy taping of ring and pinky while Climbing was another thing that I tried, but it didn't seem to have much effect. Curious what the long term state of this injury is like.

The picture below is when it's in the not so swollen state.

Hi Fellow Climbers!

Here is a YouTube video that was super helpful to me in addressing a similar nodule I had in the palm of my hand. The techniques described had an almost immediate impact for me and I hope they do for you as well if you run into this issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyRt6pKZE-Q&t=48s

Have a good day everyone!

Did you figure out what this was? And did it heal or did you need medical attention? Something very similar happened to me recently. 

Crazy to see this at the top right now.  
I have the exact same symptoms as the first post.  Pulled really hard on some sidepulls, felt a `pop` in my palm, and have an identical swollen chord in my palm for the last 2 weeks.  
There's been minimal pain, and a local doctor didn't know what to make of it, but I'm holding off on climbing until it's fully gone.  
The lack of pain or weakness makes it tempting to jump on the wall.  

An update from someone in the thread on how recovery went would be appreciated.   

 Bowstrung tendon

  theclimbingdoctor.com/pulle…;

Two days ago, I saw a hand surgeon about a problem. He knew immediately what it was. The moral of the story: A hand surgeon knows more about hand problems than a climber. :)

I was impressed with how fast he diagnosed it.

Frank, are you going to believe us or some quack hand surgeon?

Mark E Dixon wrote: Frank, are you going to believe us or some quack hand surgeon?

Very good question, Mark. I will have to sleep on it and give that question much thought.

FrankPS wrote:
I was impressed with how fast he diagnosed it.

Well you certainly have spent a lot of time telling people they should go see him

PWZ wrote:

Well you certainly have spent a lot of time telling people they should go see him

"A lot" of time? I take it you prefer an Internet diagnosis?

FrankPS wrote: Two days ago, I saw a hand surgeon about a problem. He knew immediately what it was. The moral of the story: A hand surgeon knows more about hand problems than a climber. :)

I was impressed with how fast he diagnosed it.

Mind sharing what the diagnosis was in your case?  
I'm scheduled to see another doctor in 2 days about this.  

Update on my current conditions:  About 3 weeks after the injury it is starting to hurt in the area, but in a way which it feels like something's healing.  Trying to keep it as stabilized as possible.

Peter Z wrote:

Mine sharing what the diagnosis was in your case?  
I'm scheduled to see another doctor in 2 days about this.  

Update on my current conditions:  About 3 weeks after the injury it is starting to hurt in the area, but in a way which it feels like something's healing.  Trying to keep it as stabilized as possible.

Peter,

Obviously, my condition could be different than yours. Don't know what your symptoms are.

I was diagnosed with "trigger finger." In my thumb. There is a more technical name, but I've forgotten what it is.

Edit: Just looked up the medical term for trigger finger/thumb - stenosing tenosynovitis.

has anyone pursued the enzyme injection route? I know it stops the disease from progressing, it breaks down the cords and is much cheaper... but I assume it does nothing to reduce the size of the nodule(s)- is that correct? In other words, only the surgery will get rid of the bump?

I ask because I seem to have a fast progressing case. It only hurts on sharp holds that jab directly into it, but yesterday, a sloper at the gym gave me a gnarly flapper on my palm right where the bump is. I have 0% contracture, so if my above assumption is correct, the enzyme injection would be pointless.

I have a super amazing hand surgeon that I've met with, but for the current year, he's out-of-network, so I was really hoping to hold off until 2022 when i can switch up my insurance.

I had the same thing happen yesterday - climbed a moderate boulder with pretty good holds, when I came down, had a bluish, bruise-like discoloration and swelling, lined up with the space between pinky and ring finger, between the major creases in my palm. Now it's tender and it feels a bit swollen, but so far no other symptoms.  I'm sure the swelling wasn't there before yesterday. Finger strength seems fine, no particular pain when loading fingers any which way.

The acute nature and bruise-like coloring don't sound like Dupuytren's, but I don't get the pain when loading the ring finger with a curled pinky the way lumbrical tears are said to do, so I'm not really sure what's up. Achenbach syndrome (paroxysmal hand hematoma) seems possible.

What I'd like to know is if any of the several other people in this thread with the same combination of symptoms can give me an update on what happened after your injuries. I'd love to hear about outcomes, whether interesting or boring.

Noah Balmer wrote:

I had the same thing happen yesterday - climbed a moderate boulder with pretty good holds, when I came down, had a bluish, bruise-like discoloration and swelling, lined up with the space between pinky and ring finger, between the major creases in my palm. Now it's tender and it feels a bit swollen, but so far no other symptoms.  I'm sure the swelling wasn't there before yesterday. Finger strength seems fine, no particular pain when loading fingers any which way.

The acute nature and bruise-like coloring don't sound like Dupuytren's, but I don't get the pain when loading the ring finger with a curled pinky the way lumbrical tears are said to do, so I'm not really sure what's up. Achenbach syndrome (paroxysmal hand hematoma) seems possible.

What I'd like to know is if any of the several other people in this thread with the same combination of symptoms can give me an update on what happened after your injuries. I'd love to hear about outcomes, whether interesting or boring.