What is a tendon sheath cyst? It is a benign mass containing jelly-like mucus that occurs near the joint capsule or tendon sheath on the back of the wrist, fingers and feet. When the fluid becomes more, it becomes hard and has a slight painful pressure, but most of the time there is no abnormal sensation. What are the causes of tendon sheath cysts? The cause is not known, but it may be related to chronic trauma. It can be caused by injury, overexertion, osteoarthritis, some systemic immune diseases, or even infection. Some occupations that require repetitive joint movements for long periods of time, such as typists and cargo handling, trigger or aggravate the disease. Female patients are more likely to develop this disease. Where do tendon sheath cysts tend to occur? They are more common on the back of the wrist, less common on the palmar side of the wrist, even less common on the palmar side of the fingers, and can also develop on the back of the foot near the ankle joint. Most are unicompartmental, but a few can be multicompartmental. Can tendon sheath cysts become malignant? Tendon sheath cysts are not cancerous and do not spread, although they may grow larger and they will not spread to other parts of the body. The disease usually has little effect on the body, and very rarely they may disappear on their own. The onset of a tendon sheath cyst will be accompanied by weakness, discomfort or soreness in the wrist and ankle area, without radiating pain, and generally does not cause functional impairment. How are tendon sheath cysts treated? Most of the cysts within 3 months of onset can be squeezed by squeezing and allowed to heal on their own, and frequent massage of the original part of the cyst after squeezing can prevent recurrence. However, some of them will recur later. Most of the cysts on the palm side of the finger will not recur after squeezing. Cysts over 3 months old are difficult to be squeezed and broken, and can be treated by two methods: 1. Needle prick the cyst, squeeze out the contents, and then massage it, this method has a higher recurrence rate, and can also be injected with hormone drugs inside the cyst. 2, surgical treatment: surgical incision, find the swelling, peel along the edge of the swelling, find the tip of the cyst, cut off the cyst, the ligament of the tip to do certain treatment, generally not recurrence, our department removed hundreds of cysts, no case of recurrence. What is the reason why it is not easy for us to remove the tendon sheath cysts to recur? The reason is very simple, based on the etiology and pathology of tendon sheath cysts, when removing the cysts, we should carefully separate them, find the weak part of the tendon sheath, which is the root of the cyst bulge, that is the neck, carefully ligated with silk thread, and then cut off the cysts, this is OK, if you are not sure, you can use nylon thread to repair the weak part, this is a very critical step, do this well, the cysts will not recur. How to prevent the development of tendon sheath cysts? Pay attention to the protection of wrist joints, foot small joints, etc., to avoid strain, especially like in the office to work, the use of computer frequency of white-collar workers, pay more attention to the combination of work and rest, more relaxed wrist foot ankle joints, so as to avoid long-term chronic injury to the synovial cavity synovial fluid increased to form cysts. Take care to eat less spicy and irritating food in your daily diet. If you find pain in your wrist or ankle, go to the hospital in time.