Gouty tophi images. Authoritative facts about the skin from DermNet New Zealand. When gout goes untreated for many years, or doesn’t respond to treatment, you may develop tophi under your skin.

Understanding the Context

These swollen lumps or growths are uric acid crystal deposits in your tissues. See real photos of gout in fingers and hands with examples of inflammation, crystal deposits, and tophi that can occur with chronic gout. Here are some pictures of chronic gout with tophi and swollen joints in different parts of the body. Close-up of the hand showing gout on the thumb and finger.

Key Insights

Close-up of a thumb with yellow-white tophi caused by gout. Close-up of a tophus on the ear. Close-up of an elbow with a gout tophus. The pages below refer to tophi in different parts of the body, often with tophi pictures which some gout sufferers may find upsetting as they display the most grotesque symptoms of gout. Tophi are large, hardened accumulations of uric acid crystals within and around the joints.

Final Thoughts

They can cause pain and deformities and affect range of motion. Tophi can form anywhere, including in the fingers, tops of the ears, elbows, and even over the knees and shins. The gout pictures in this gallery show the characteristic swelling and 'lumpy' areas around the joints of the feet and hands. Swelling and lumpy areas usually indicates the prescence of tophi under the skin, one of a few recognised symptoms of gout. Uric acid deposits called tophi develop in cartilage tissue, tendons, and soft tissues. These tophi usually develop only after a patient has suffered from the disease for many years.