Diabetic Hand: A Neglected Complication of Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is associated with a variety of musculoskeletal (MSK) manifestations affecting the hand, which can significantly affect a patient's quality of life. While a great deal of attention is paid to the chronic microvascular complications of diabetes, the MSK complications are often ignored in clinical practice. It is important to diagnose them as their presence has been found to correlate with chronic microvascular complications of diabetes especially retinopathy. We describe a case of a young male with long-standing type 1 diabetes mellitus and chronic microvascular complications, who presented to us with several manifestations of diabetic hand syndrome.