Amar A. Patel, MD answers your questions about wide awake surgery, a surgery performed with the patient completely awake using only local anesthesia. It can be used for many hand and wrist surgeries such as trigger finger surgery, arthritis surgery and more.

A thumb sprain is an injury to a ligament, which is a soft tissue that connects bones to each other at joints, as opposed to a thumb fracture (break) which is an injury to the bone. Many times, thumb sprains will result from sports injuries or falls. For example, skiing results in many thumb injuries, as does basketball. Or, you may fall and try to catch yourself, bending your thumb in an awkward position.

A “hangnail” really isn’t a problem with your nail at all.  It is caused by parts of your skin that are raised up around your nail cuticle but are still connected at the skin base.  When this raised skin pulls or gets caught on surrounding areas, it pulls the base of the skin and causes inflammation and pain.