Now - the question is this: does this patient have arthritis? Those joint spaces look a little narrow.
Har! I kid. Who cares about the joint spaces - what the heck is that thing on the patient's thumb?!
Answer: This is a squamous cell tumor. The patient initially noticed a small spot on her thumb several years ago, and went to a doctor. The doctor cut off the lesion and pronounced the patient cured. Unfortunately, the lesion slowly grew back over three years or so, and the patient did nothing about it, even though it was so huge, ulcerated and disgusting that she was unable to use her left hand. The thing also wept fluid; she had to keep it covered so it wouldn't stain her clothes, tablecloth, furniture, etc.
Ultimately she had the thumb amputated. They are looking at using one of her toes to give her a replacement thumb, since having an opposable digit is such a nice feature of the human hand. I am excited to see the radiographs of that. If I see those images, rest assured that they will show up here, as well.
In the meantime, remember that you need to follow up on things. If you have something cut off your skin and it just doesn't look right afterward - for example, if it grows to the size and shape of a potato - get it checked out.
