Ganglions: To pop or to not pop

So Physio is your holistic physiotherapy clinic in Albany, North Shore and Auckland City Central. Our approach are unconventional and utilises the whole body approach. We make sure we listen to you and your issues, and curate a individualised treatment approach tailored to you.

What is a Ganglion?

Ganglion cysts are fluid filled sacs often found on the back of the wrist or hand. It is commonly caused by mechanical dysfunctions of the wrist and is considered an overused injury. The ganglion can be painful or non painful and often gets bigger as time past. What happens is that the overuse of wrist muscles happens causing leaking of synovium into the tendon sheath due to the increased friction. Often we find that the wrist muscles overwork due to a dysfunction in muscles higher up the chain like scapular muscles, back muscles etc.

Common Treatment Approach for Ganglions

• Aspirate

• Surgery

• Corticosteroid Injection

Do you know…

There’s a better way to treat the root cause of why they happen and stop them from coming back. Often surgery or aspiration will remove it, but because the cause of the ganglion is still there, it often comes back. Ganglions are often easily resolved by fixing the mechanical dysfunctions and reprogramming the movement pattern.

One of my client has had a ganglion on her wrist for the last 4-5 years. She whacked her wrist against a wall accidentally 1-2 years back and managed to burst the ganglion, but because the root cause hasn't been fixed, the ganglion came back again and has gotten bigger and painful lately. We worked on fixing the mechanical dysfunction and her ganglion reduced in size by half in just one session back in 2019. 3 years down the road and the ganglion has not come back since and she doesn’t have any more wrist pain.

Fix the root cause, not the symptom. Ganglions don't form for no reason, they are not normal and have the potential to cause more problems when they increase in size and restrict the wrist joint.

This is why we treat the whole body as one, and not chase the pain. Do you have a ganglion? Book in for an appointment now.

So Physio has locations in both Albany, North Shore & Auckland City Central.