If not detected and treated early ganglion cysts can be very painful indeed and the restriction of the movement of you hands can be severely restricted. There is no real answer as to what causes them but they are very irritable.

These are cysts then develop underneath the skin and are commonly found on the writs of people and also on the fingers, feet and ankles. So even though they are not restricted to being found on the hands that is where they are commonly found.

What happens is that are formed when tissue which surrounds the joints become swollen with a fluid. It can be quite common for them to increase in size and yet they can disappear completely. But you should be aware that these cysts are in no way cancerous and are not life threatening even though they are painful and can restrict the movement of the hands.

Ganglion cysts do not spread to other areas of the body and are not contagious so you cannot pass them on to another person and they do not spread across the body.

But to make sure that you get diagnosed correctly you doctor will suggest that you have an x-ray or even a blood test. It is very important that you get such cysts to be looked at as whilst they may just be lumps, such lumps could be the symptoms of something else. As an example it could be a tumour or bone spur, but in the majority of cases it will be a cyst. So you need to get these cysts looked at early in order to give yourself peace of mind and to therefore get the appropriate treatment as quickly as possible.

If you are lucky then such cysts will disappear on their own accord. But sometimes they can stay on the hands and wrists for long periods of time, and at the same time getting bigger and bigger. Once they do become too large, this will apply extra pressure to any surrounding joints which in turn will generate additional pain. When this happens, complete removal of the cyst is the general best option for treatment.

A known method treatment is to actually stick a needle into the cyst with the intention of removing any excess fluid. There are times when this method of treatment is not always effective as the fluid may not always pass through the needle. And if it does work, 50% of people see the cyst returning again at some point in the future.

Just like if you had a spot, you would try to pop it with the intention of releasing the pus. Some people have tried to hit the cyst with something heavy such as very large book again with the intention of popping the cyst and releasing the fluid. If this does work then generally the lining of the cyst is also destroyed and this usually means that the cyst does not return again, which is very good news.