King Charles’ “sausage fingers” have become infamous, and many have wondered why they’re like that.
A doctor has given insight into the potential cause of the 74-year-old monarch’s swollen fingers — and even shared that there’s a technical name for the condition.
According to GP Chun Tang, Medical Director at Pall Mall Medical in Manchester, UK, there are many reasons that someone could have “sausage fingers.”
“Often puffy fingers are a symptom of water retention which can be caused by numerous health conditions,” Tang told the Daily Mail.
“This condition arises due to inflammation and can be a result of arthritis, multiple bacterial infections or even TB,” he continued. “Other possibilities include high salt levels, allergic reactions, medicinal side effects, injury and autoimmune diseases.”
The official name for sausage fingers is dactylitis.
According to Cleveland Clinic, most types of inflammation only affect one concentrated area, but with dactylitis, the entire finger or toe will be swollen along its entire length.
A person can have dactylitis in a single digit, in multiple digits — or even in the entire hand or foot, according to Medical News Today.
The swelling can lead to other symptoms such as pain, feeling of warmth or heat, discoloration and difficulty moving or bending the finger or toe as usual.
Dactylitis occurs in 16-49% of people with psoriatic arthritis, according to a paper in the journal Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism.
While arthritis is the most common cause of dactylitis, it can also be caused by nonarthritic autoimmune diseases, such as sickle cell disease, lupus or sarcoidosis.
Swollen fingers can also be the result of an infection including Lyme disease, syphilis and tuberculosis.
Treatment differs depending on the cause of the sausage fingers — arthritis and autoimmune diseases can be a lifelong process which could include medication, physical therapy or cortisone shots, while dactylitis caused by an infection will most likely result in a doctor prescribing antibiotics.
Chronic dactylitis — dactylitis that comes back again over time — caused by arthritis or autoimmune diseases could potentially be treated at home, either with over-the-counter medication, by soaking your digits in cold water or wrapping an ice pack in a thin cloth and applying it to your swollen digits for 15 minutes multiple times per day.
King Charles’ “sausage fingers” have been roasted online since he took the throne last September.
“Sausage fingers” was even the seventh most searched term on Google at one point this year.
Most recently, royal fans noticed that the king’s hands were nowhere to be seen in portraits released ahead of his coronation, joking that Charles has been “bullied” into hiding his digits in photos.
“I want to abolish the monarchy but I do still feel bad that we have gang bullied a grown man into never showing his hands again,” a person wrote.
However, even with camera-shy hands, Charles himself hasn’t addressed the internet’s obsession with his fingers.
The coronation of King Charles III is on May 6.
