Intrinsic hand muscles

Looks like

Twenty small muscles inside the hand itself — the pads at the thumb and little finger and the strips between the bones.

What it does

Spread and close the fingers and give the thumb its precision grip.

Keeping it well

Keep them moving; wasting at the thumb pad points to a squeezed nerve at the wrist.

Its parts

• Thenar muscles
• Hypothenar muscles
• Dorsal venous network of hand
• Oblique head of adductor pollicis
• Set of dorsal interossei of hand
• Set of lumbricals of hand
• Set of palmar interossei of hand
• Superficial head of flexor pollicis brevis
• Transverse head of adductor pollicis

Related conditions

• Botulism
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Chronic venous insufficiency
• Clotting disorders (thrombophilia & APS)
• Cubital tunnel syndrome
• De Quervain's tenosynovitis
• Deep vein thrombosis
• Dupuytren's contracture & trigger finger
• Fibromyalgia
• Frailty & falls in older age
• Ganglion cyst
• Heat exhaustion & heatstroke
• Juvenile idiopathic arthritis
• Malnutrition & refeeding syndrome
• Muscular dystrophy
• Polymyalgia rheumatica
• Pseudogout (calcium pyrophosphate disease)
• Raynaud's phenomenon
• Repetitive strain & overuse injury
• Rhabdomyolysis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Sarcoma
• Sarcopenia
• Tetanus
• Varicose veins