Your hands are essential to your life. Whether you are in pain or have a mobility limitation, any impairment to your hands or fingers can feel completely debilitating.
One condition that can cause both pain and limited mobility to your fingers is trigger finger.
Trigger finger occurs when there is inflammation of the flexor tendon sheath in one of your fingers and the inflammation starts to irritate the tendon, and over time a nodule develops. This prevents your tendon from moving smoothly through its tendon sheath and leads to catching or triggering.
If the condition goes untreated, you may end up with your finger locking and getting stuck in one position, requiring you to use your other hand to forcefully move your finger out of that position and this can be extremely painful.
Causes of Trigger Finger
It is hard to find what exactly causes trigger finger, but we do know that repetitive gripping and pinching can put people more at risk for developing trigger finger.
Given the repetitive gripping and pinching that is correlated to trigger finger, patients tend to report their symptoms impacting their ability to participate in their preferred hobbies and activities such as:
- Weight lifting
- Gardening
- Climbing
- Golf
- Tennis
- Baking
- Pickleball
- And more.
Anyone can develop trigger finger, but it is most common in adults in their 40s, 50s, and 60s and more common in women than men.
Think you may have fractured your finger? Learn about the next steps for recovery in “Return to Sport: Fractured Fingers” on the Spooner Blog.
Treating Trigger Finger
Depending on how long you have been experiencing symptoms, the severity of your symptoms, and how soon you seek help, treatment can look a little different. The typical treatment options include conservative treatment w splinting and therapy, corticosteroid injection, or surgical intervention.
Reducing the inflammation in your hand is the first priority. We do this by icing multiple times a day and also by splinting your finger to prevent you from bending your finger and irritating your tendon even more. At Spooner, your hand therapist can work with you to find a splint that is perfect for you or make you a custom splint in the clinic.
If you seek treatment for your trigger finger right away, your hand therapist can provide manual treatment as well as teach you stretches, exercise and massage techniques to help treat your symptoms in addition to the splinting and icing you are already doing at home. In this case, if you are compliant with coming to therapy and doing everything you need to do at home, your trigger finger symptoms can resolve within a couple of weeks. However, if you are struggling to complete your exercises at home or not compliant w icing or wearing your splint symptoms may improve a little but it can be very hard for them to fully resolve.
If you have been experiencing symptoms for a long time or your symptoms are more severe, your hand therapist may refer you to a hand surgeon for a consultation to discuss more aggressive treatment options such as corticosteroid injection or surgery. An injection can help aid in decreasing inflammation and allow you to complete treatment exercises with less pain. Surgical intervention is typically indicated if your symptoms do not resolve after trying conservative treatment and injections or if your finger is consistently locking in one position requiring you to forcefully pull your finger out of that position using your other hand.
If you are having pain or triggering in your fingers, schedule an appointment with a Spooner hand therapist today! We will help you move and feel your best.