Question
If I have hebron nodes on the joints of my fingers, might the pains in shoulders and knees be arthritis also?
Answer
I think you mean Heberden’s nodes, although naming these things for the oldest city in the world might also seem appropriate but somewhat calloused. Heberden’s “nodes” is actually a misnomer they are not nodes at all, but are the bony enlargement at the most distal small joints of the fingers– the distal interphalangeal joints (DIPs). They are a finding most often seen in osteoarthritis, particularly in women past menopause. They may be inherited (yet something else to blame on your parents). They can be thought of as bone spurs at the margins of the joint– and thus feel hard like bone. They can be troubling particularly when trying to do fine motor activities with the fingers and for cosmetic reasons, but most of my patients do fairly well from a functional point of view. Osteoarthritis mainly affects the weight bearing joints so the knees and hips are common sites. The shoulders are very rarely affected by osteoarthritis since most of us don’t walk on our hands, but the shoulders can suffer from rotator cuff problems or bursitis. I cannot comment more specifically about your arthritis without an examination. (see the osteoarthritis section on our Website)
